Did Ring’s Super Bowl ad normalize always-on surveillance?
Plus: Debunking the viral WHO cancer curing claims.
Greetings!
Here are the latest trending internet culture stories today:
Amazon’s Super Bowl commercial for its Ring doorbell device caused more concern than excitement for its newest—and most invasive—feature.
Italian actress Sabrina Impacciatore’s performance during the Olympics sparked a lot of questions—and AI accusations.
Viral posts on social media claim other countries are curing cancer now that the USA has left the WHO. Here’s what actually happened.
See you in the next one!
— W.J.
⚡️ Today in Internet Culture
“Skynet”: Ring’s Super Bowl ad about finding lost pets backfires into a surveillance state freakout[image]
During Super Bowl LX, Ring (owned by Amazon) aired a glossy commercial about reuniting a family with their missing dog, Milo. The ad pitched Search Party, an AI feature that scanned nearby Ring cameras to spot lost pets.
Yet while the spot tried to lean into sentimentality, many viewers saw something darker: a glimpse of always-on neighborhood surveillance, quietly normalized during the biggest TV event of the year. Some of the more critical posts tied the Ring feature to law enforcement fears.
Sabrina Impacciatore’s Olympic Ceremony performance draws mixed reactions: “Needs no computers to delight”
While popular in her homeland, Italy, Sabrina Impacciatore, 57, was widely unknown prior to her role as Valentina in season 2 of The White Lotus: a role that earned her an Emmy nomination. Since then, she’s become beloved all around the world, even bagging a role in the Office spin-off sitcom The Paper.
However, viewers around the world didn’t really know what to make of her performance at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games.
Claims that the U.S. leaving the WHO led to cancer cures are going massively viral—here’s what’s actually going on
Over the weekend, a slew of posts went viral across social media claiming that multiple cancers were suddenly cured in the weeks after the United States officially left the World Health Organization. But are they true?
It was a highly controversial move with a lot of opposition both within the U.S. and globally, and a year later, in January 2026, the country’s withdrawal from the WHO was complete. So, was there a sudden rush of cancer cures after America left the WHO? Not exactly.
🕸️ Crawling the Web
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📱 Disney+ announced vertical video features, and fans are not impressed
🎮 Chappell Roan arrives in Fortnite after asking to be featured
👕 Customer mocks Target’s Black History Month display
🔥 Hot on the Dot
This was the most-read story on the Daily Dot yesterday:
➤ “American?”: Traveler who didn’t know what happened in the Roman Colosseum sparks historical debate