For example there is one guy in a country who is being a dick or a single small business in some country that’s being a dick

But the internet catches wind of it and it ends up gaining traction online and ends up going from something small and minor to something huge online and actually seeming worser and bigger than it is and potentially makes the country where it happened appear like that when it isn’t true.

I’m looking for a word or words to describe this.

  • remon@ani.social
    57·
    10 months ago

    To “blow out of proportion”.

    Or

    To “make a mountain out of a molehill”

  • edgemaster72English
    5·
    10 months ago

    The internet

    serious answer: overreaction is another term people haven’t mentioned yet

  • Acamon
    5·
    10 months ago

    I feel like “going viral” partly covers that? When you make an offensive tweet before boarding a plane, and get turn off flight mode to realise the world has judged you and you’ve lost your job?

    If you specifically mean how the Internet can misrepresented a country because most people online have never been to Montenegro or Bhutan, then it’s maybe just “bias”?

  • ParagoneEnglish
    51·
    10 months ago

    Good Grief, people:

    EMBIGGEN.

    Though totally blow out of proportion would be more sane, “embiggen” nails it in a single word.

    _ /\ _

  • RattlerSixEnglish
    3·
    10 months ago

    You night be thinking of the Streisand effect, which is a little different, but very similar

  • Goku
    2·
    10 months ago

    Doxing is when you expose someone’s (or a business’s) identity or name or location for the internet to brigade.

    Most of the time the target has faced some controversy (often petty and small) and once the internet catches wind, a flurry of fury and hate is unleashed upon the target.

    Is this what you mean?