By Ray Kirsch and Kayla Dembiec

While students may have been away from Madison over winter break, the pop culture drama around the world certainly stayed! If there’s one constant in life, it’s drama. What exactly happened during the last two months, you may ask? I’m here to fill you in.

TikTok banned for less than a day; users flock to Xiaohongshu

TikTok users were anxiously awaiting the day of the TikTok ban, which was set to be January 19. Naturally, they created a trend where creators spilled secrets from their content creation—revealing that many of them were actually lying. That’s right, those creators weren’t doing those extensive workouts that they showed you. They weren’t actually spending 24 hours in Black Friday stores. 

The overarching question for TikTok users was where do we go now? They seemingly found a solution, which essentially served a large middle finger to the American government. Xiaohongshu, otherwise known as Little Red Book or Rednote, is a Chinese social networking app. It functions similarly to TikTok and Instagram, and even though it’s technically available in the U.S. app store, the app is entirely in Chinese. 

That didn’t stop American TikTok users from agreeing to the terms and conditions that they couldn’t read and creating accounts, though. Xiaohongshu mostly welcomed Americans with open arms, kindly reminding them to be respectful of the cultural differences. [This also occurred after an American creator made a joke about “colonizing the platform.” That joke didn’t land, unsurprisingly.] They mainly encouraged English-speaking users to include Chinese translations in their posts, even providing translation apps to users. 

Users were sharing the differences between the two countries, such as how Americans have to pay taxes on their homes, and some even helped each other with homework. But original Xiaohongshu users quickly noticed that the app creators were pushing out a new algorithm based on IP addresses, essentially attempting to have users in the U.S. share a feed that didn’t overlap with Chinese users. Long-time Xiaohongshu users that currently reside in the U.S. shared their dislike for this change, as many of them used the platform as a way to communicate with their friends who lived in China (such as students travelling abroad). 

But less than twenty hours after TikTok was banned, it was back. Users literally couldn’t enter the app without seeing a pop up notification of TikTok thanking President Trump for bringing the app back. The TikTok CEO was also at Trump’s inauguration on January 20. TikTok users quickly realized there were differences to the app, specifically with recommendations in the search bar. The following were not able to be searched: banned books, wlw (women-loving-women), Elon Nazi salute, Trump allegations, and various LGBTQ+ references. Users speculate that META may have bought the app or at least struck a deal with TikTok to censor certain content. 

Users aren’t leaving the app, though. Xiaohongshu hasn’t been discussed much since the return of TikTok, either. It should be noted that TikTok users who deleted the app are currently unable to redownload the app. 

The drama really never stops.

Luigi Mangione goes momentarily viral

CEO of UnitedHealthcare Brian Thompson was killed in New York City on December 4. Five days after his death, a 26-year-old named Luigi Mangione was arrested as the suspect. He was allegedly detained with a gun, bullets, a fake ID, cash and a manifesto. While many people are declaring Mangione guilty, his trial hasn’t even occurred yet. This hasn’t stopped Hulu from already producing a documentary called Manhunt, where TMZ investigates Mangione and “why he did it.” 

Why is this in the pop culture column instead of the news department, you ask? Because everyone on TikTok was thirsting over Mangione when he was declared the suspect. Users quickly found everything about this man, such as his Goodreads account, his Twitter, and various other social media accounts. They dug up his favorite books and what reviews he wrote about them. 

Users also speculated why Mangione would’ve done this, if he truly is found guilty. His Twitter header contained a scan of a spine, which some believed was his own scans from back issues he potentially has. 

Allegedly, Mangione suffered a surfing incident in July of 2023 that caused him to visit the emergency room. According to the Hindustan Times, his friends recall that his struggles began with chronic back issues, which escalated into debilitating pain. After undergoing a spinal surgery involving screws in his spine, he began to focus his online activity on chronic pain and the healthcare system.

His virtual bookshelf featured titles like “Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry” and “Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic at the Root of Most Chronic Disease―and How to Fight It.’’

Currently, Mangione is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the only federal jail in New York City. This is notably where Sean “Diddy” Combs is also being held. 

Golden Globes controversial win

During this year’s Golden Globes, thriller musical Emilia Pérez won “Best Musical or Comedy Motion Picture,” which was faced with controversy throughout the internet. 

The Golden Globes are an annual award ceremony celebrating film and television excellence. This year, the winners were revealed during a live broadcast on January 5.  

Emilia Pérez, a Netflix film that stars Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofía Gascón, has received the most nominations from major award bodies this season. It won four Golden Globes and has been nominated for 13 Oscars. 

The film’s total nominations ties with Oscar-winning films such as Oppenheimer, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Forrest Gump.

This film has become widely disputed since it won the award for best musical or comedy motion picture over many fan-favorite films, including “Wicked,” “The Substance,” and “Challengers.”

Many have also criticized how the film portrays transgender identity. The LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD called the film “a step backward for trans representation.” At the same time, other critics have stated that the film includes transphobic tropes, such as describing a transgender woman as “half male/half female.”

 The movie, which is set in Mexico, has also been criticized for how Mexican culture and people are portrayed. The film’s director, Jacques Audiard, is French, and the movie was shot in France. 

Critics have used the word “inauthentic” to describe the movie. Rodrigo Prieto, a Mexican cinematographer, expressed that he was unhappy with how it was filmed.

“It was just the details for me. You would never have a jail sign that read ‘Cárcel’ it would be ‘Penitenciaria’. It’s just the details, and that shows me that nobody that knew was involved. And it didn’t even matter. That was very troubling to me,” Preito said.