Daily

VIRAL NEWS: FLORIDA'S FIND OUT PHASE, THE MONTANA BAN, & WORLD CUP LOGO

A peek into the topics buzzing at Cassandra

Friday has arrived, so it's time to talk about the most relevant internet news of the past week. Culture moves fast, and we at Cassandra try to move even faster to keep up with all the relevant issues Gen Z can't stop discussing. In this edition, we'll discuss the uproar Gov. DeSantis is facing on social media (and real life), the ban of a very popular social media platform, and the outrage of graphic designers around the globe —all this and more in this week's recap of Viral News.

FLORIDA IS IN ITS "FIND OUT PHASE"

Florida has managed to find itself the butt of the joke in memes for years, but currently, the internet is not making fun of the mythological "Florida Man." Instead, users took to social media to report on all the consequences of Gov. Ron DeSantis' latest actions both in immigration legislation and his war against one the largest media conglomerates in the world: Disney. Regarding immigrants, TikTok videos offer detailed explanations about the bill and highlight how the construction sites and agriculture fields are empty after he went hard against undocumented workers and signed the SB1718 bill, causing a staff shortage and triggering a truckers' boycott on the whole state. Commenters on the clock app keep referring to this moment as the "Find out phase" for the state. The chaos doesn't stop just there; DeSantis is also being roasted after Disney announced it is pulling the plug on building its new campus that would have contributed 2,000 new jobs to the southern state thanks, at least in part, to the governor's ongoing war with the company.

THE MONTANA TIKTOK BAN

The "Treasure State" became the first in the U.S. to completely ban TikTok —sort of. Even though Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the ban this past Wednesday, many question how true this measure will actually be. According to Apple and Google, the marketplace platforms currently cannot block the app for specific states. The bill states that the companies will be fined $10,000 per each day the app continues to be available to the public, which, considering the magnitude of the tech giants, will probably be more convenient to pay than to invest in a workaround or at least that's what TikTok's "science dad" Hank Green has to say. The Montana native would be only one of the thousands of creators affected by the ban set to start on January 1st, 2024. ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) released a statement accusing this bill of being unconstitutional and threatening to take it to court as it violates the First Amendment.

THE 2026 WORLD CUP HAS A LOGO

... and no one likes it? That seems to be the consensus on social media around the newly announced 2026 World Cup logo for the upcoming tournament to be held in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. The art designed by FIFA in collaboration with a group of undisclosed agencies was revealed to the public on Wednesday at the launch event in Los Angeles, CA. As a response, the internet has taken personal offense that many other designs were discarded to give space to this minimalist representation of the biggest event of the most beloved sport on the planet. Some even joke that it was created using the popular online design tool Canvas. The objection to the simple and clean logo is that historically, World Cup logos tend to be colorful and represent the variety of cultures, the joy of the game, and the celebration of all countries coming together —in Dani Rojas' words: Football is life! —and this logo is…not.