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Yesterday on the Internet: April Fools' in the age of fake news

On March 31, Twitter announced they were getting rid of the “Twitter Egg,” the default profile photo that had become associated with anonymous harassment and trolling. Twitter didn’t like the negative connotations of the egg, and in a blog post outlining the change, said it wanted to “prompt more self-expression.” So they replaced the egg with an expressionless human silhouette that was soon to become the new face of anonymous harassment and trolling.

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Meanwhile, on the internet, every single brand was was busy rolling out their April Fools’ Day pranks that they’d spent far too much time and money on. And this year, it wasn’t just brands looking to get a lift from a solid, self-effacing April Fools gag.

This segment originally aired April 3, 2017, on VICE News Tonight on HBO.