break the Internet

The phrase emerged in the mid-1990s, initially referring to the literal loss of connection for a single device or the implausible destruction of the Internet and the World Wide Web themselves. By the early 2000s, the term shifted toward the figurative, describing a web server being overwhelmed by a sudden surge in traffic. This could result from a malicious denial-of-service attack or an organic, non-malicious spike in interest that proved more than the hardware could manage.

In the early 2010s, the expression moved into the realm of social media slang to describe content that generates a massive volume of commentary, typically by being ostentatious or controversial. While the magazine was not the first to employ the phrase in this manner, the November 2014 issue of Paper, which featured Kim Kardashian on the cover under the headline "Break the Internet," is credited with the popularisation of the term in its current sense.