About

Care Reaction, also known as Hug Reaction, refers to a reaction button of an emoticon hugging a heart that was released on Facebook in April 2020 amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The reaction gained popularity as an exploitable, with users replacing the heart with other objects. In May 2020, posts falsely claiming that the reaction has been appropriated by hate groups were circulated in certain Facebook communities.

Origin

On April, 17th 2020, Facebook EMEA tech communication manager Alexandru Voica announced a new Facebook reaction button via his Twitter account.^[1] The tweet presented the reaction, named "Care Reaction" tweet, as a way for people to share support during the COVID-19 outbreak. The tweet received over 500 retweets and 2000 likes in three weeks (shown below).

In a separate tweet,^[2] Voica announced that the reaction would start rolling out starting on April 18, with Facebook userbase gradually receiving access to the reaction.

Spread

The gradual introduction of the reaction prompted the spread of memes in which Facebook users inquired about the availability of the reaction and the methods of acquiring it. For example, on April 28th, 2020, Facebook^[3] user Khaled Ebrahim II posted an image of Tom the Cat pointing a gun, captioned "Last Time I Ask, How Do I Get the Hug React," to "Tom and Jerry Cheeseposting II" Facebook group. The post received over 2,200 reactions and more than 7,800 shares in one week (shown below).

Starting in late April 2020, the reaction button gained popularity as an exploitable on Facebook, with users replacing the heart with other objects. For example, on April 30th, 2020, Facebook user Leo Mihai^[4] uploaded a Cheems edit that received more than 8,100 reactions and over 31,000 shares in one week (shown below, left). On May 2nd Facebook^[5] user Josh Alam posted a Skyrim meme that garnered over 1,900 reactions in three days (shown below, right).

On May 1st, 2020, Facebook^[6] group Shadilay Watkins 2 pitched an idea for baiting the general public into believing that the emote is a hate symbol (post shown below, left). On the same day, multiple group users^[7][8] made posts that falsely claimed that the emoji is a hate group dog whistle, including posts disguised as PSAs issued by the Anti-Defamation League (example shown below, right). In the following days, the posts were shared by a number of Facebook communities, including Far-Right Dreams,^[9] Outer Haven,^[10] DJ Cum Brain 2 Techno Boogaloo^[11] and other groups.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References