Twitter users' hopes for 2017 point in one direction
Social Cues: Also trending on social media are Julian Assange and the US House of Representatives.
As the new year starts to pick up steam, social media marches on.
On Twitter, people are still tending to their 2016 wounds and making their wishes for what the new year will bring. The US House of Representatives, meanwhile, is trending across Facebook and Twitter after Republicans voted to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics.
Social Cues is our look at what people are talking about across social media. Here is what's trending on Tuesday:
#IHope2017WillBring: On the third day of 2017, people on Twitter already have their list of demands for the new year. Some are just hoping the world doesn't end, while others have their fingers crossed for celebrity zombies. So far, the hashtag of hope has been dominated by One Direction fans yearning for the boy band to reunite. But really, people, there will never be an end to cat GIFs on social media:
House Republicans: GOP members of the US House of Representatives have voted to dismantle the Office of Congressional Ethics, a department created in 2008 to investigate scandals and corruption among lawmakers. The entire House will get to vote on the decision on Tuesday, as part of a rules package. If the vote goes through, the watchdog group's responsibility will go to the House Ethics Committee, which other politicians control. On Twitter and Facebook, people are outraged that the lawmakers are making moves to overhaul the oversight group designed to hold those same lawmakers accountable.
Julian Assange: The WikiLeaks founder tells Fox News in an interview that will air Tuesday night that Russia was not behind the hacks that affected the US presidential election. Emails from prominent figures in the Democratic Party, including Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, John Podesta, were posted through WikiLeaks in 2016. Assange started trending on Facebook because of the interview, with more than 140,000 people talking about the news. The US intelligence community is pretty much all in agreement that Russia was behind the hacks, and last week President Obama retaliated against Russian officials.
Fallout 4: The hit game from late 2015 has started trending again on Facebook, also thanks to Russian hacking. A CNN report on the topic used a screenshot from the game as B-roll footage to show what "hacking" looks like, according to an eagle-eyed redditor who spotted the gaffe. People on Facebook have been laughing at the discovery.
Soulja Boy: The one-hit wonder "Crank That" rapper is trending on Twitter over his feud with Chris Brown. Soulja Boy claimed that the R&B star called him Monday night and threatened to fight him because the rapper liked a photo of the singer's ex-girlfriend on Instagram. Soulja Boy has since been sending a flurry of tweets and videos threatening Brown and calling him "irrelevant." Which is exactly what people on Twitter are calling Soulja Boy, who hasn't had a hit record since 2007.
Be sure to check out Social Cues' weekly roundup called T.GIF. It will pop up every Friday on CNET's Snapchat and Instagram accounts. Add us on Instagram at @CNET or on Snapchat at @CNETsnaps. Our social accounts also feature CNET Update daily and Mailbox Mondays. Join us!