By the next morning, "waaa476" was a digital graveyard. The hashtags were dead, the hoodies were "out of stock," and the news cycle had already moved on to a video of a golden retriever "talking" to a parrot.

The spread of WAAA476 offers a stark lesson in how social media news aggregates operate today. Traditionally, news outlets reported on events. In the influencer economy, they report on the chatter .