10 Stories That Broke The Internet In 2014

It takes a lot to get attention on the Internet these days. We see scandals and triumphs every day of the week, and mostly they're forgotten by the time the hashtag stops trending. However, there are always some exceptions. In this feature, we'll recap the ten game-changers that kept the Internet occupied in 2014.

Donald Sterling's Racist Rants

If there's one thing we learned loud and clear in 2014, it's that racism is still alive and well in America. The case of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling should have made that obvious all the way back in April, when audio recordings of the octogenarian billionaire talking smack about African-Americans hit the Internet. Sterling, caught lecturing a female friend about being seen publicly with black people, was quickly banned from the NBA and forced to sell the Clippers. Sadly, this was only the overture to a year that would get even more insensitive. (Photo credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)


The viral video scene was hopping in 2014, with all sorts of clips making the rounds. One of the most bizarre - and badass - came in May, when a clip of a four-year-old boy in Bakersfield, California being menaced by a neighbor's Lab-Chow mix hit YouTube. After the dog dashed across the lawn and seized the young boy by his leg, dragging him off his tricycle, a very strange hero came to save the day. Tara, the family's house cat, dove into the fray and actually managed to chase the much larger dog away from the boy, saving his life and becoming a celebrity in the process. (Photo credit: YouTube)
Sure, you're at the Oscars, you're going to see stars everywhere, but when Ellen DeGeneres assembled a crowd that included Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep and Kevin Spacey for a selfie it rapidly became the most retweeted image in Twitter history. As of the end of the year, the pic had been shared over two million times, and Samsung (who made the Galaxy Note 3, the device that took the shot) claimed that it was worth more than $800 million in publicity. That's a hell of a lot of cash for a selfie. (Photo credit: Ellen)


If there was one video that really summed up the hot-button issue of 2014, it was "10 Hours Of Walking In NYC As A Woman," a clip put together by anti-street harassment group Hollaback. The clip follows an ordinary-looking lady through the streets of the Big Apple, clipping together the many, many instances of dudes trying to run game on her as she goes. It was a pretty sharp illustration of the stuff women have to deal with, but it also sparked a lot of controversy regarding what exactly should count as harassment. And, of course, since this is the Internet the comments on YouTube rapidly filled up with rape threats. (Photo credit: YouTube)


It was also a major year for less-than-salubrious behavior on the Internet, as black hats did all sorts of dirty deeds. One info leak that was inescapable went by the name "The Fappening." Consisting of hundreds of private pictures scraped from the iCloud accounts of celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Kirsten Dunst and dozens of others, the images were leaked on Reddit and 4Chan and quickly exploded into the wild, as perverts across the globe took the opportunity to finally "fap" to illicit pics of their favorite female stars. (Photo credit: Tumblr)


Crowdfunding has changed the way we do business in the 21st century, with entrepreneurs looking to the public to fund inventions from minimal wallets to video games. But one man named Zack Danger Brown showed us all how ridiculous the concept could be in June when he raised over $55,000 to make a bowl of potato salad. Brown's humble project had a goal of just ten bucks, but when the page went viral he ended up throwing a huge party that he dubbed "Potato Stock" in Columbus, Ohio. He's now trying to talk his way into a guest spot on a sitcom. Good luck with that, dude. (Photo credit: Kickstarter)


Since the Seahawks took home their first Super Bowl ring in 2013, Seattle's team has been feeling its Cheerios. One of the squad's best talkers, Richard Sherman, decided to unload on the NFL with both barrels back in November after the organization fined QB Marshawn Lynch $100,000 for refusing to talk to the press. Lynch's epic two-minute rant, delivered next to a cardboard cutout of Doug Baldwin that the real Doug Baldwin hid behind, set the sports Internet on fire and proved that he's got the chops to stand with the best talkers in football history. (Photo credit: Seahawks)


Not everything that broke the Internet in 2014 was vapid or awful - we actually managed to do some good this year as well. The Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association launched the first real fundraiser of the viral video age with the Ice Bucket Challenge, in which celebs and ordinary Joes either doused themselves with freezing cold water or donated cash to the group, which aims to cure the condition also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Of course, most people did the bucket and made a donation, which let the ALS Association rake in over $100 million over the summer. (Photo credit: Syracuse)


The phrase "break the internet" was coined in late November in response to the release of Kim Kardashian's Paper Magazine cover shoot. The photos featured her ample posterior coated in an unidentified glossy substance that reflected all of our hopes and dreams. The initial shot was shared over a million times, which is insane. So, it's safe to say that she succeeded in breaking the Internet. At least for a day or so. (Photo credit: Paper Magazine)

 

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