Numlock News: May 20, 2026 • (Greco)-Roman, Horny Jail, Circuses

May 20, 2026

By Adam Bumas

Walt is on vacation, today’s edition comes from Adam Bumas, the Head of Research at the excellent Garbage Day.

Your regular Numlock will resume tomorrow. Since this little slice of your internet experience is about to go back to normal, today’s issue is about what “normal” even looks like when it comes to posting online.

(Greco-) Roman Update

The Department of Homeland Security confiscated 26 smuggled ancient Greek artifacts earlier this year. Last month, the State Department officially repatriated them in a ceremony at the Greek Embassy in Washington D.C. The bigger story, though, is how we learned this news: The DHS gave exclusive information about the process to an anonymous X account called Daily Roman Updates. The account, which collects memes from Facebook, seems to have received the government’s blessing thanks to its regular conversations with Elon Musk.

Adam Bumas, Garbage Day

Money On Fire

Daily Roman Updates is less of an outlier than you might think. Political candidates have been paying popular online figures hundreds of thousands of dollars for positive posts and endorsements. These payments aren’t always covered by campaign finance laws, and at least in one case, they’ve been covered by hiring the influencers as consultants. One owner of a major X account has even set public rates, charging $15,000 per post at the highest premium. For all that money, the posts can expect two entire emoji: a siren and a flame.

Ken Bensinger, New York Times

99% Of All Germs

So maybe the emoji aren’t worth the price, but the right post really can be a huge windfall. Last month, Silicon Valley CEO and filial blood enthusiast Bryan Johnson used X to publicize the “vaginal microbiome report” of his girlfriend and cofounder, claiming her results were in the “top one percent of all vaginas.” Since this is the internet, many people took the percentile ranking as a personal challenge. One startup that offers their own all-in-one vaginal test kit reported a 2,000 percent increase in sales in the 48 hours following Johnson’s post.

EJ Dickson, WIRED

Literal Horny Jail

Not everyone is as comfortable with frank discussions of sexuality as the enlightened, thoughtful people of X. On May 8, a Russian court sentenced photographer Alexandra Kuzyk to 18 months in a labor camp for writing erotic “omegaverse” fanfiction, about romance and sex between members of the K-pop boy band Stray Kids. At the work camp, Kuzyk will have 10 percent of her wages garnished by the state, and won’t even be able to relax afterwards with any spicy stories.

Mathew Rodriguez, Them

Can (And Should) We Build It?

Not all internet crimes are equal, of course. Earlier this month, livestreamer Dalton Eatherly, who uses the nom de guerre “Chud The Builder,” was arrested for attempted murder. While the murder didn’t happen while he was streaming, it’s estimated to have directly earned him more than $44,000. Banned from most streaming sites for public harassment, Eatherly broadcasts on the “memecoin” crypto trading site Pump. The money came from sales of his personal memecoin, $CHUD, which is tied to his streamer profile.

Christopher Mathias, MS NOW

Bread For Circuses

If you’re looking for more traditional ways to earn money from online video, the “fan event” movie theater screening craze shows no sign of slowing down. With weeks to go, the YouTube animated series “The Amazing Digital Circus” has already grossed $7.5 million in presales for its theatrical finale. The creepypasta-inspired web show has already cut syndication deals with both Netflix and Amazon Prime. In case you were worried, the massive fandom has — heretofore, at least — been well-behaved enough to stay out of court.

Wilson Chapman, IndieWire

First Pass, Last Pass

Digital Circus isn’t alone. Recent surveys conducted by YouTube suggest the platform has more or less conquered the entire medium of animation, with 63 percent of all animation viewers regularly watching cartoons originally made for YouTube. This is affecting the perspective on how animation ought to look, or even how “complete” the end product can be. Almost as many survey respondents — 57 percent to be exact — regularly watch rough, incomplete animatics rather than just finished, polished animation. Like Tweets to articles, or TikToks to shows, animation has been reduced to its quicker, scrappier components by the internet.

Jamie Lang, Cartoon Brew

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