Twitter users flooded the president's mentions with creepy passages and stocking sex videohaunting images after he announced that he tested positive for COVID-19. No, it's not some otherworldly hex on Trump — this is just another meme.
President announced his and first lady Melania Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis via Twitter (of course) on Thursday night, and social media exploded. Amid well wishes for a speedy recovery, glee at the diagnosis, and discourse over each response, Twitter users also started responding with messages paired with creepy images. When translated from Amharic to English, the messages warned of a "sinful soul" beyond salvation.
The practice is similar to K-pop stans flooding mentions with fancams to derail a conversation as a form of trolling.
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Don't be alarmed — you might not be familiar with the language, but it's not an "evil" one just because you don't recognize it.
Amharic is actually one of the official languages of Ethiopia, with roughly 22 million speakers worldwide according to a 2007 census report. It's related to Ge'ez, also known as Ethiopic, which is used in the Ethiopian Orthodox church's liturgical texts. Ethiopian gospel music is often sung in Amharic.
But because the Amharic alphabet is so different from the ones the Western world is used to, the language became a copypasta. People would reply to otherwise innocuous messages in Amharic, and add an unsettling image. Earlier this year, a Reddit user asked for a translation of a screenshot of a text conversation, in which one person admitted they were on acid and the other replied in Amharic.
"Your family will spill the blood because of the actions you took. They feel eternal pain for your actions," the translated reply says. "Tears that flow from me will also change, and the pain they feel will be unbearable. You will soon be alone."
Over the course of the night, the trend evolved from pairing Amharic with demonic or Satanic images in Trump's replies to using surreal and humorous ones.
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While it may be funny to pair an unfamiliar language with an absurd image, Amharic speakers have asked Twitter users to stop pushing the meme. In July, Twitter user tsukkiskys, who speaks the language, wrote that their language "ain't some demonic copypasta."
"Stop viewing the world from your little 'western bubble," they tweeted. "Other writing systems exist. Other languages exist. Show some respect please."
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Some replied to replies using the copypasta asking to refrain from using Amharic as a meme.
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Bottom line, this isn't part of some greater conspiracy to curse the president. At the same time, though, responding with a culturally insensitive meme probably isn't the way to reply to Trump's COVID diagnosis.