Break The Internet

2014Catchphrase / internet slangclassic

Also known as: #BreakTheInternet · Broke the Internet

Break The Internet is a 2014 catchphrase from Paper Magazine's Kim Kardashian cover, describing viral content that dominates online conversation across all platforms.

"Break the Internet" is a catchphrase used to describe when a piece of content, story, or celebrity moment goes so overwhelmingly viral that it dominates online conversation across multiple platforms at once. The phrase picked up its modern slang meaning in 2014 when Paper Magazine used it as the headline for Kim Kardashian's nude cover shoot, turning what had been a tech-policy cliché into one of the decade's most recognizable internet expressions3. Since then, the phrase has been applied to everything from Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair reveal to Taylor Swift's NFL appearances, averaging roughly 2,000 daily uses on Twitter by mid-20155.

catchphrase memessemantic drift memesinternet slang origin memesslang memes

Overview

"Break the Internet" started as a literal concept. In the 1990s, media reports regularly described hackers as having "broken into" the internet, treating the global network as if it were a single machine with a lock on the front door5. The idea that ordinary actions could somehow crash the entire internet was absurd enough to become a running joke, most memorably in the British sitcom *The IT Crowd*, where a character warns colleagues that typing "Google" into Google could break the internet1.

The phrase shifted meaning twice. First, in the early 2010s, policy advocates used it to warn that proposed legislation like SOPA/PIPA would fundamentally alter how the internet worked5. Then, around 2014, "break the internet" became pure slang, a way to describe content so viral it felt like every corner of the web was talking about the same thing at the same time3. This final meaning is the one that stuck.

The earliest uses of "break the internet" treated it literally. A 1993 Canadian news story about DNS theft described the suspect as having "broken into the Internet, the worldwide computer network," framing the internet as a physical thing someone could crack open5. Throughout the 1990s, the phrase appeared whenever journalists needed shorthand for digital catastrophe1.

A 1996 *Wired* article used "breaking the Internet" to describe concerns about growing demand overwhelming infrastructure4. The IT Crowd's 2008 joke about Googling Google crystallized the absurdity of the literal interpretation, and that clip became a reference point for years1.

The transition to figurative slang happened gradually. In 2012, Google chairman Eric Schmidt told the Davos convention that the EU's proposed "Right to be Forgotten" legislation would "break the Internet"2. Anti-SOPA activists used the same language that year, claiming the bills would "break the Internet" by creating access hierarchies5. At this point, the phrase still implied real structural damage.

The slang usage, meaning "go insanely viral," appeared in early 2014. YouTube videos began using it as clickbait shorthand. One early example was an episode of Joe Rogan's show titled "Neil deGrasse Tyson Breaks The Internet"5. But the phrase didn't truly enter mainstream vocabulary until November 2014.

Origin & Background

Platform
Paper Magazine (viral slang popularization), various media (earlier technical usage)
Key People
Paper Magazine editorial team, Jean-Paul Goude
Date
2014 (slang meaning), 1990s (original usage)

The earliest uses of "break the internet" treated it literally. A 1993 Canadian news story about DNS theft described the suspect as having "broken into the Internet, the worldwide computer network," framing the internet as a physical thing someone could crack open. Throughout the 1990s, the phrase appeared whenever journalists needed shorthand for digital catastrophe.

A 1996 *Wired* article used "breaking the Internet" to describe concerns about growing demand overwhelming infrastructure. The IT Crowd's 2008 joke about Googling Google crystallized the absurdity of the literal interpretation, and that clip became a reference point for years.

The transition to figurative slang happened gradually. In 2012, Google chairman Eric Schmidt told the Davos convention that the EU's proposed "Right to be Forgotten" legislation would "break the Internet". Anti-SOPA activists used the same language that year, claiming the bills would "break the Internet" by creating access hierarchies. At this point, the phrase still implied real structural damage.

The slang usage, meaning "go insanely viral," appeared in early 2014. YouTube videos began using it as clickbait shorthand. One early example was an episode of Joe Rogan's show titled "Neil deGrasse Tyson Breaks The Internet". But the phrase didn't truly enter mainstream vocabulary until November 2014.

How It Spread

On November 11, 2014, Paper Magazine's Twitter account shared two studio photographs of Kim Kardashian for its winter cover issue. Photographer Jean-Paul Goude recreated his iconic "Champagne Incident" shot, showing Kardashian in a black evening gown balancing a champagne glass on her backside. A second, more explicit photo showed her peeling off the gown entirely. Both images carried the subtitle "Break the Internet / Kim Kardashian".

Paper Magazine's editors were deliberate about their framing. "There is no other person that we can think of who is up to the task than one Kim Kardashian West," they wrote. "A pop culture fascination able to generate headlines just by leaving her house, Kim is what makes the web tick". The tweet collected over 3,200 retweets and 2,500 favorites within 24 hours. Kardashian promoted the shoot on Instagram and Twitter, joking about her "talent" of balancing the glass. Kanye West's response was a single tweet: "#AllDay".

Twitter exploded with reactions. Some users flooded the #BreakTheInternet hashtag with dog photos as a counter-protest. Others assumed the hashtag was about net neutrality before realizing it was about Kardashian's backside. The cover dominated social media for days and drew coverage from nearly every major outlet.

Six months later, the phrase was everywhere. The Washington Post used "Actually, Caitlyn Jenner just broke the Internet" as a headline when Jenner's Vanity Fair cover dropped, likely drawing the connection because of Jenner's family ties to Kardashian. Twitter data from June 2015 showed the phrase being used at a steady rate of about 2,000 times per day.

On November 14, 2017, Paper Magazine revisited the formula with Nicki Minaj. The magazine tweeted a cryptic "Please Wait" image before revealing a cover titled "Minaj à Trois," featuring three versions of Minaj in provocative poses photographed by Ellen von Unwerth. Minaj's cover tweet pulled in over 37,000 retweets and 101,000 likes in two days. Creative director Drew Elliott noted that Paper "never called an issue Break the Internet since we did it back in 2014 with Kim Kardashian," framing it as a title the magazine reserved for a specific caliber of cultural moment.

The phrase kept circulating through major viral events. When Taylor Swift appeared at Travis Kelce's NFL game in September 2023, confirming their relationship after weeks of speculation, commentary across sports media and pop culture outlets described the moment as having "broken the internet". The Swift-Kelce situation illustrated how the phrase had become default vocabulary for any event that commanded simultaneous attention across fan communities, news desks, and social media feeds.

How to Use This Meme

"Break the internet" works as both a declaration and an aspiration. The most common uses:

- Describing past virality: "That dress debate broke the internet" or "Kim K broke the internet in 2014." Applied retroactively to events that dominated online conversation. - Hyping upcoming content: Brands and creators often announce they're "about to break the internet" before a product launch, photoshoot, or reveal. Paper Magazine essentially created this template. - Ironic or sarcastic usage: Calling something mundane "internet-breaking" for comedic effect. A photo of a mediocre sandwich captioned "about to break the internet" plays on the gap between the hype and the content. - Describing server crashes: Occasionally still used in its older technical sense, where massive traffic spikes actually crash websites or slow servers to a crawl.

The hashtag #BreakTheInternet typically accompanies these uses on Twitter and Instagram.

Cultural Impact

The Kim Kardashian cover didn't just popularize a phrase. It became a case study in how celebrity, social media, and traditional publishing could intersect to create a viral moment by design rather than by accident. Paper Magazine, a relatively niche New York publication, leveraged Kardashian's massive following and the provocative imagery to generate the kind of traffic and attention usually reserved for major breaking news.

The phrase's adoption by news organizations was swift. When applying it to Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair cover, The Washington Post and roughly 10,000 Twitter users used the exact phrase, showing how quickly it had become journalistic shorthand. The concept also filtered into academic discussion. Media scholar Jess Maddox analyzed how "breaking the internet" gets applied to events like the Swift-Kelce romance, noting that the metaphor involves context, history, and the collision of distinct fan communities.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt's 2012 Davos comment that EU privacy rules would "break the Internet" also demonstrated how tech companies weaponized the phrase in policy debates, using it to imply that any regulation risked destroying the open web. The Register's Andrew Orlowski pointed out the irony: a network designed to survive nuclear attack was supposedly too fragile to handle new laws.

Paper Magazine's creative director Drew Elliott treated "Break the Internet" as a franchise. By 2017, when the Nicki Minaj cover launched, he explicitly framed the title as something the magazine bestowed selectively, writing that "it takes a certain type of talent" to earn the designation.

Fun Facts

The phrase appeared in a 1993 Canadian arrest report about DNS theft, possibly one of the earliest recorded uses of "breaking into the Internet" in media.

Paper Magazine's winter 2014 issue used photographer Jean-Paul Goude, who recreated his own 1976 "Champagne Incident" image for the Kardashian shoot.

Kim Kardashian's husband Kanye West responded to the entire internet firestorm with a single-word tweet: "#AllDay".

Urban Dictionary's top definition for "Break the Internet" references *The IT Crowd* scene about typing "Google" into Google.

Paper's creative director waited three years before using the "Break the Internet" branding again, specifically reserving it for Nicki Minaj in 2017.

Derivatives & Variations

#BreakTheInternet hashtag campaigns:

Following the Kardashian cover, brands and individuals co-opted the hashtag for their own promotional stunts, often with diminishing impact[7].

Nicki Minaj "Minaj à Trois" (2017):

Paper Magazine's second official "Break the Internet" cover, featuring three Minaj personas in a provocative composite shot by Ellen von Unwerth[6].

Counter-memes:

During the Kardashian cover's peak, Twitter users deliberately flooded the hashtag with cute dog photos and other non-sequiturs as a form of playful protest[7].

The IT Crowd clip revival:

Every major "break the internet" moment brought renewed attention to the 2008 *IT Crowd* scene, which became the default reply GIF for anyone invoking the phrase[1].

Frequently Asked Questions

References (15)

  1. 1
    'Don't break the internet': How an idiot's slogan stole your privacy... • The Registerarticle
  2. 2
    Nicki Minaj tries to 'Break the Internet' with very risque 'Minaj a Trois' Paper magazine cover | Fox Newsarticle
  3. 3
    break the Internet - Wiktionary, the free dictionaryarticle
  4. 4
    Break the Internet - Know Your Memeencyclopedia
  5. 5
    List of Internet phenomenaencyclopedia
  6. 6
    Break the Internet - Urban Dictionarydictionary
  7. 7
    Urban Dictionary: Break the Internetdictionary
  8. 8
    How, exactly, does one break the internet? - by Jess Maddoxarticle
  9. 9
    Understanding "break the Internet" Idiom: Meaning, Origins & Usage - CrossIdiomas.comarticle
  10. 10
    Nicki Minaj tries to 'Break the Internet' with very risque 'Minaj a Trois' Paper magazine cover | Fox Newsarticle
  11. 11
    Let us now acknowledge this Nicki Minaj magazine coverarticle
  12. 12
    'Don't break the internet': How an idiot's slogan stole your privacy... • The Registerarticle
  13. 13
    Nicki Minaj poses for scandalous Paper magazine cover - CBS Newsarticle
  14. 14
    Kim Kardashian attempts to ‘Break the Internet’ - The Boston Globearticle
  15. 15
    Nicki Minaj Breaks The Internet - PAPER Magazinearticle

Break The Internet

2014Catchphrase / internet slangclassic

Also known as: #BreakTheInternet · Broke the Internet

Break The Internet is a 2014 catchphrase from Paper Magazine's Kim Kardashian cover, describing viral content that dominates online conversation across all platforms.

"Break the Internet" is a catchphrase used to describe when a piece of content, story, or celebrity moment goes so overwhelmingly viral that it dominates online conversation across multiple platforms at once. The phrase picked up its modern slang meaning in 2014 when Paper Magazine used it as the headline for Kim Kardashian's nude cover shoot, turning what had been a tech-policy cliché into one of the decade's most recognizable internet expressions. Since then, the phrase has been applied to everything from Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair reveal to Taylor Swift's NFL appearances, averaging roughly 2,000 daily uses on Twitter by mid-2015.

catchphrase memes semantic drift memes internet slang origin memes slang memes

Overview

"Break the Internet" started as a literal concept. In the 1990s, media reports regularly described hackers as having "broken into" the internet, treating the global network as if it were a single machine with a lock on the front door. The idea that ordinary actions could somehow crash the entire internet was absurd enough to become a running joke, most memorably in the British sitcom *The IT Crowd*, where a character warns colleagues that typing "Google" into Google could break the internet.

The phrase shifted meaning twice. First, in the early 2010s, policy advocates used it to warn that proposed legislation like SOPA/PIPA would fundamentally alter how the internet worked. Then, around 2014, "break the internet" became pure slang, a way to describe content so viral it felt like every corner of the web was talking about the same thing at the same time. This final meaning is the one that stuck.

The earliest uses of "break the internet" treated it literally. A 1993 Canadian news story about DNS theft described the suspect as having "broken into the Internet, the worldwide computer network," framing the internet as a physical thing someone could crack open. Throughout the 1990s, the phrase appeared whenever journalists needed shorthand for digital catastrophe.

A 1996 *Wired* article used "breaking the Internet" to describe concerns about growing demand overwhelming infrastructure. The IT Crowd's 2008 joke about Googling Google crystallized the absurdity of the literal interpretation, and that clip became a reference point for years.

The transition to figurative slang happened gradually. In 2012, Google chairman Eric Schmidt told the Davos convention that the EU's proposed "Right to be Forgotten" legislation would "break the Internet". Anti-SOPA activists used the same language that year, claiming the bills would "break the Internet" by creating access hierarchies. At this point, the phrase still implied real structural damage.

The slang usage, meaning "go insanely viral," appeared in early 2014. YouTube videos began using it as clickbait shorthand. One early example was an episode of Joe Rogan's show titled "Neil deGrasse Tyson Breaks The Internet". But the phrase didn't truly enter mainstream vocabulary until November 2014.

Origin & Background

Platform
Paper Magazine (viral slang popularization), various media (earlier technical usage)
Key People
Paper Magazine editorial team, Jean-Paul Goude
Date
2014 (slang meaning), 1990s (original usage)

The earliest uses of "break the internet" treated it literally. A 1993 Canadian news story about DNS theft described the suspect as having "broken into the Internet, the worldwide computer network," framing the internet as a physical thing someone could crack open. Throughout the 1990s, the phrase appeared whenever journalists needed shorthand for digital catastrophe.

A 1996 *Wired* article used "breaking the Internet" to describe concerns about growing demand overwhelming infrastructure. The IT Crowd's 2008 joke about Googling Google crystallized the absurdity of the literal interpretation, and that clip became a reference point for years.

The transition to figurative slang happened gradually. In 2012, Google chairman Eric Schmidt told the Davos convention that the EU's proposed "Right to be Forgotten" legislation would "break the Internet". Anti-SOPA activists used the same language that year, claiming the bills would "break the Internet" by creating access hierarchies. At this point, the phrase still implied real structural damage.

The slang usage, meaning "go insanely viral," appeared in early 2014. YouTube videos began using it as clickbait shorthand. One early example was an episode of Joe Rogan's show titled "Neil deGrasse Tyson Breaks The Internet". But the phrase didn't truly enter mainstream vocabulary until November 2014.

How It Spread

On November 11, 2014, Paper Magazine's Twitter account shared two studio photographs of Kim Kardashian for its winter cover issue. Photographer Jean-Paul Goude recreated his iconic "Champagne Incident" shot, showing Kardashian in a black evening gown balancing a champagne glass on her backside. A second, more explicit photo showed her peeling off the gown entirely. Both images carried the subtitle "Break the Internet / Kim Kardashian".

Paper Magazine's editors were deliberate about their framing. "There is no other person that we can think of who is up to the task than one Kim Kardashian West," they wrote. "A pop culture fascination able to generate headlines just by leaving her house, Kim is what makes the web tick". The tweet collected over 3,200 retweets and 2,500 favorites within 24 hours. Kardashian promoted the shoot on Instagram and Twitter, joking about her "talent" of balancing the glass. Kanye West's response was a single tweet: "#AllDay".

Twitter exploded with reactions. Some users flooded the #BreakTheInternet hashtag with dog photos as a counter-protest. Others assumed the hashtag was about net neutrality before realizing it was about Kardashian's backside. The cover dominated social media for days and drew coverage from nearly every major outlet.

Six months later, the phrase was everywhere. The Washington Post used "Actually, Caitlyn Jenner just broke the Internet" as a headline when Jenner's Vanity Fair cover dropped, likely drawing the connection because of Jenner's family ties to Kardashian. Twitter data from June 2015 showed the phrase being used at a steady rate of about 2,000 times per day.

On November 14, 2017, Paper Magazine revisited the formula with Nicki Minaj. The magazine tweeted a cryptic "Please Wait" image before revealing a cover titled "Minaj à Trois," featuring three versions of Minaj in provocative poses photographed by Ellen von Unwerth. Minaj's cover tweet pulled in over 37,000 retweets and 101,000 likes in two days. Creative director Drew Elliott noted that Paper "never called an issue Break the Internet since we did it back in 2014 with Kim Kardashian," framing it as a title the magazine reserved for a specific caliber of cultural moment.

The phrase kept circulating through major viral events. When Taylor Swift appeared at Travis Kelce's NFL game in September 2023, confirming their relationship after weeks of speculation, commentary across sports media and pop culture outlets described the moment as having "broken the internet". The Swift-Kelce situation illustrated how the phrase had become default vocabulary for any event that commanded simultaneous attention across fan communities, news desks, and social media feeds.

How to Use This Meme

"Break the internet" works as both a declaration and an aspiration. The most common uses:

- Describing past virality: "That dress debate broke the internet" or "Kim K broke the internet in 2014." Applied retroactively to events that dominated online conversation. - Hyping upcoming content: Brands and creators often announce they're "about to break the internet" before a product launch, photoshoot, or reveal. Paper Magazine essentially created this template. - Ironic or sarcastic usage: Calling something mundane "internet-breaking" for comedic effect. A photo of a mediocre sandwich captioned "about to break the internet" plays on the gap between the hype and the content. - Describing server crashes: Occasionally still used in its older technical sense, where massive traffic spikes actually crash websites or slow servers to a crawl.

The hashtag #BreakTheInternet typically accompanies these uses on Twitter and Instagram.

Cultural Impact

The Kim Kardashian cover didn't just popularize a phrase. It became a case study in how celebrity, social media, and traditional publishing could intersect to create a viral moment by design rather than by accident. Paper Magazine, a relatively niche New York publication, leveraged Kardashian's massive following and the provocative imagery to generate the kind of traffic and attention usually reserved for major breaking news.

The phrase's adoption by news organizations was swift. When applying it to Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair cover, The Washington Post and roughly 10,000 Twitter users used the exact phrase, showing how quickly it had become journalistic shorthand. The concept also filtered into academic discussion. Media scholar Jess Maddox analyzed how "breaking the internet" gets applied to events like the Swift-Kelce romance, noting that the metaphor involves context, history, and the collision of distinct fan communities.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt's 2012 Davos comment that EU privacy rules would "break the Internet" also demonstrated how tech companies weaponized the phrase in policy debates, using it to imply that any regulation risked destroying the open web. The Register's Andrew Orlowski pointed out the irony: a network designed to survive nuclear attack was supposedly too fragile to handle new laws.

Paper Magazine's creative director Drew Elliott treated "Break the Internet" as a franchise. By 2017, when the Nicki Minaj cover launched, he explicitly framed the title as something the magazine bestowed selectively, writing that "it takes a certain type of talent" to earn the designation.

Fun Facts

The phrase appeared in a 1993 Canadian arrest report about DNS theft, possibly one of the earliest recorded uses of "breaking into the Internet" in media.

Paper Magazine's winter 2014 issue used photographer Jean-Paul Goude, who recreated his own 1976 "Champagne Incident" image for the Kardashian shoot.

Kim Kardashian's husband Kanye West responded to the entire internet firestorm with a single-word tweet: "#AllDay".

Urban Dictionary's top definition for "Break the Internet" references *The IT Crowd* scene about typing "Google" into Google.

Paper's creative director waited three years before using the "Break the Internet" branding again, specifically reserving it for Nicki Minaj in 2017.

Derivatives & Variations

#BreakTheInternet hashtag campaigns:

Following the Kardashian cover, brands and individuals co-opted the hashtag for their own promotional stunts, often with diminishing impact[7].

Nicki Minaj "Minaj à Trois" (2017):

Paper Magazine's second official "Break the Internet" cover, featuring three Minaj personas in a provocative composite shot by Ellen von Unwerth[6].

Counter-memes:

During the Kardashian cover's peak, Twitter users deliberately flooded the hashtag with cute dog photos and other non-sequiturs as a form of playful protest[7].

The IT Crowd clip revival:

Every major "break the internet" moment brought renewed attention to the 2008 *IT Crowd* scene, which became the default reply GIF for anyone invoking the phrase[1].

Frequently Asked Questions