From Rudy Giuliani to International Men’s Day – this week’s biggest Twitter storms

A round-up of five of the last five days’ most prominent social media rows

As the US president challenges democracy by resisting the results of a legitimate election, and tens of thousands of people continue to die every week in an escalating global pandemic, the world appears to be on fire – and in some areas literally is.

But it isn’t always the most life-altering stories that gets Twitter’s blood communally boiling. From International Men’s Day to Rudy Giuliani’s face, here are five topics that sent social media users into a collective meltdown over the past week.

1. International Men’s Day

Whenever International Women’s Day comes around, furious cries of “When is International Men’s Day?!” inevitably follows from men on Twitter who have no idea there is one (and who are then quickly corrected by comedian Richard Herring). 

Thursday marked the 20th annual “celebration” of men and their contribution to country and family, apparently. Inevitably, the fact there is a men’s day at all has also triggered some annoyance.

“When you live in a patriarchal society, every day is #InternationalMensDay,” one user wrote, alongside a video suggesting they would unfollow anyone posting about the day (Can you unfollow yourself?) Another wrote: “What? Today is #InternationalMensDay ? Wait...wasn't that everyday?”

Even the United Nations managed to court controversy regarding International Men’s Day.

2. Fairytale of New York

After BBC Radio 1’s decision to broadcast a censored version of The Pogues song “Fairytale of New York”, omitting the word “f****t” from the lyrics, Twitter predictably exploded with the now almost-monthly row over the intersection of free speech, political correctness, and “political correctness gone mad”.

But the issue really went into overdrive when right-wing activist, and apparent actor, Laurence Fox, called on his Twitter followers to make the unvarnished record go to number one. It culminated in The Pogues themselves calling Mr Fox a “little herrenvolk s***e”.

The Independent has reached out to Mr Fox’s representatives for comment.

3. Rudy Giuliani’s ‘melting’ face

On Thursday Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, gave an exceptionally damaging press conference in which he repeated a litany of false and misleading claims about November’s presidential election.

Despite the flirtation with authoritarianism and his attempt to undermine democracy, the biggest Twitter story to come out of Mr Giuliani’s event were the extraordinary events occurring on his face. The heavily-sweating Giuliani repeatedly wiped his brow as dark brown streaks, probably the result of hair dye, ran down his cheeks.

Opponents exploded with glee.

4. Amazon a staunch supporter of Irish nationalism?

Twitter was set ablaze on Monday when Amazon’s customer service account told a Northern Ireland customer they were unable to watch Autumn Nations Cup rugby matches because coverage was “exclusively available to Prime members based in the UK”.

When the customer insisted Northern Ireland was in the UK, Amazon doubled down, accidentally appearing to take sides in the decades-long conflict between unionists and Irish nationalists about the island of Ireland.

“I ordered 32 counties for next day delivery and it is coming up on 100 years of partition.  Can I get a refund?” one wag tweeted - receiving the apparently oblivious reply from Amazon: “How can we help you? Let us know.”

5. Humanitarian organisation ‘jokes’ about torture

In a gaff surely blamed on the social media intern, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) appeared to tell its followers some torture was OK.

In its own tortuous attempt to join the memes poking fun at Twitter’s recent decision to begin fact checking Mr Trump, the ICRC tweeted, “Torture is legal in some situations", followed by a disclaimer underneath reading, “This claim is disputed by the Geneva conventions”. 

Just hours later, the organisatoin rushed out an apology. “To be clear: Torture is banned – absolutely – under international law,” the anti-torture organisation said.

BBC Middle East correspondent Quentin Sommerville summed the week up. “We may have jumped the shark,” he tweeted.