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  1. Science & Tech
28 December 2017

All the actually good things that happened on the internet in 2017

Here’s a bit of the cesspool that’s fuzzy and warm!

By Amelia Tait

(Photo By Flickr user: mendhak)

The internet is one naughty boy! This year, so many foul, disgusting, inexplicable, horrific, and upsetting things have happened on the WWWs that it’s almost tempting to turn the whole thing off like a mum in ’99 who wants to use the phone. Do we really need all this freedom? All this information? All this My Little Pony porn? To remind you why the web is Good, Actually, here’s a round-up of genuinely nice things that happened online in 2017.

In January, a 75-year-old widower posted a Gumtree advert looking for fishing buddies. Hundreds responded, with one 22-year-old eventually taking him on all-expenses-paid fishing trip

Also in January, a Redditor raised nearly $200,000 for an 18-year-old who was attacked in a Facebook Live video

***

In February, a Twitter user replaced every “be” in the song “Rather Be” with Jerry Seinfeld screaming “Bee!” from Bee Movie. 

***

In March, Professor Robert Kelly’s daughter interrupted his interview with BBC News in the most spectacular fashion, instantly becoming an internet icon

Also in March, disgraced former defence secretary Liam Fox denied sending a tweet – while sat in front of a very large picture of the aforementioned tweet

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In April, Carter Wilkerson first tweeted to fast food restaurant Wendy’s asking for free nuggets, later becoming the owner of both the most retweeted tweet of all time and a year’s supply of nugs

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In May, rapper Nicki Minaj gave thousands of dollars to Twitter users so they could afford their college tuition

Also in May, the 22-year-old who stopped the WannaCry cyberattack on the NHS donated his $10,000 reward money to charity

***

In June, a dad asked celebrities to send birthday messages to his bullied son. His plea went viral, and Russell Crowe, Stormzy, Dawn French, and the England football team were among those who passed on their well wishes

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In July, Dream Daddy, a simulator game in which you navigate dating as a gay dad, was released on PC

***

In August, Lazy Town actor and internet meme Stefán Karl Stefánsson (better known as Robbie Rotten) announced he was free of cancer metastases, after the Facebook page Lazy Town Memes raised over $150,000 for his medical costs (and 86,621 people signed a Change.org petition asking for a statue of him to be built) 

Also in August, a nun went viral for proving the dictionary wrong

***

In September, a walkie-talkie app allowed people to help rescue the victims of hurricane Harvey

Also in September, YouTubers Mike and Heather Martin were sentenced to five years’ probation for child neglect, after other YouTubers exposed their abusive pranks to the wider world

***

In October, PornHub users, including WalkerTexasNutter, offered one another mental health advice

***

In November, Donald Trump’s Twitter account was deactivated for 11 minutes

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In December, a 22-year-old travelled thousands of miles to meet an 81-year-old woman he befriended via the game Words With Friends

Also in December, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones argued with an Amazon Echo

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