Hey Everyone! 
I hope everyone had a nice relaxing weekend! 最近はやばいほど暑くない？冬まで我慢できるかな〜。
This week we will be looking at several words. They are not always used at the same time, but you would probably see them used together pretty often.
The first word we will be looking at today is 炎上（えんじょう）.
ENJYOU
<炎上（えんじょう）>
[Noun/する-verb (intransitive)]
To burst into flames. In particular, a tower or a large building burning down.
We have done several of these already, so you may have a good idea on what this one could mean.
If you guessed ‘uproar’, ‘blew up’, or ‘under fire’, you are correct. 炎上 is a term used when someone does something on the internet or in real life and they blow up for all the wrong reasons and receive a lot of backlash for their action. This term usually refers to an event where there are more negative comments compared to positive ones. When there are more positive comments, you can say バズる, which means to go viral.
Origin 
炎上 was used very differently in the early days of the internet. The earliest recorded use of 炎上 was in 2001, on the baseball forum in 2ch, to refer to a situation where the pitcher has lost a bunch of points due to the batters batting every throw. However, now, the meaning has evolved and it is used to refer to situations where someone gets all the hate on the internet.
In Japan, it is said that the number of 炎上 rose when blogs started to become more popular, which was around 2004. Now with so many people on the internet, it seems like there is a new ‘uproar’ everyday to the point that there are YouTubers and streamers dedicated to picking up these new topics and some of these content creators even try to interview people that were involved in said incident.
バカッター
This ties us to the next word, バカッター.
Any guesses on what this one means? If you have been on the Japanese side of the internet you have probably seen this word or have come across a wild バカッター.
This is actually a combination of two words, 馬鹿（ばか） and Twitter, and translates directly as ‘Stupid tweet’. When written like this in English, it may seem harmless, but they usually aren’t the funny kind of stupid. バカッター usually refers to people who makes tweets or posts videos of themselves doing/condoning something illegal, unethical, dangerous, or doing something to hurt reputation of a person or a company.
Although it was initially only used for tweets, now any stupid activity posted on the internet is called a バカッター by people on the internet. One of the most famous バカッター in the past few years is the 寿司（すし）ペロ事件（じけん）.
Short summary of the 寿司ペロ事件
For those of you who don’t follow Japanese current events, here is a quick recap of what happened. A friend of a 17 year old filmed and posted a video of him licking various things and putting them back to their original place in a popular conveyor belt sushi restaurant, スシロー, in 2023, and when this video went viral, he was named the ぺロぺロ少年 and this incident was often referred to as the 寿司ペロ事件. This eventually reached national news, and when it did, the sushi restaurant’s stock and the number of customers plummeted, and he received a lot of hate online. Eventually he was witch-hunted and doxxed. He did go to the branch he filmed at to apologize, but the restaurant decided to sue him for the financial loss caused by this 17 year old instead of accepting his apology. After a while, he was charged with 67 million yen to pay for damages caused, however, after a few months, the restaurant ended up stepping back from making the kid and his family pay the full price for damages (the reason for this decision was not publicized).
バイトテロ
Sometimes these videos are recorded in the workplace by people that actually work there. When this happens it is not only called a バカッター, but also a バイトテロ. This one is pretty straightforward, バイトテロ is an abbreviation for バイトテロリズム, which is used to mean ‘work-place pranks caused by part time workers (work-place terrorism)’. These pranks we are talking about aren’t cute pranks, like hiding in a corner and surprising your coworkers, or putting a stapler in jello.
We are talking about part-time workers filming themselves purposely coughing into people’s orders, putting food from the trashcan into people’s orders, or use chewed up food as an ingredient.
Due to the nature of these posts, they usually lead to a 炎上.
As you immerse yourself in the Japanese side of the internet, you will probably encounter a lot of incidents, since people on the internet love to see drama unfold, especially if they have nothing to do with it. Although I do not condone doxxing or witch-hunting, if you do see people uploading harmful videos, I do recommend sharing and reporting them!
今日はここまでにしとこう。みんなは炎上するようなことはしないでね！
Fuga
If you missed the previous posts, you can check them out here!