Eve Barlow / "Eve Fartlow"

Overview

Eve Barlow's "Eve Fartlow" Article refers to a column written by music journalist and outspoken Zionist Eve Barlow in which she detailed the consequences she'd faced on social media for tweeting openly in support of Israel during the May 2021 bombings between Palestine and Israel. She compared the consequences she'd faced to a pogrom and a digital lynching, but was notably annoyed by the fact that people mass-replied "Eve Fartlow" to her posts.

Background

In May of 2021, amidst the bombings between Israel and Hamas, music journalist Eve Barlow tweeted consistently as an outspoken Zionist in defense of Israel. Many of her tweets were ratio'd, as people harshly criticized her stances on the conflict. For example, one tweet where she claimed a Jewish friend of hers panicked after misreading a "Free Parking" sign as "Free Palestine" received a 1,000-76 quote-tweet-to-retweet ratio in one hour (shown below).^[1]

On May 13th, 2021, Twitter user @SAMOYEDCORE^[2] replied "Eve Fartlow" to one of her tweets. It was the first example of a Twitter user responding "Eve Fartlow" to one of Barlow's tweets, which would become commonplace over the coming weeks (shown below).

On May 26th, 2021, Barlow published a piece in Tablet Magazine^[3] titled "The Social Media Pogrom." The piece notably starts out with the lede, "I don’t know who crafted the first tweet that simply said 'Eve Fartlow,' but whoever it was--bot or human--started a fire. Over the past two weeks, Twitter has been littered with the words 'Eve Fartlow.' Every time I tweet, this title is the response I attract, and it is pelted at me irrespective of what I write." She goes on to compare the consequences she's faced as a result of her Zionist posts—such as friends unfollowing her, former colleagues unfollowing her and losing work—as a form of "digital lynching" and a "social media pogrom."

Developments

The piece quickly spread on Twitter as people were amused by its lede referencing "Eve Fartlow." User @BrandyLJensen^[4] posted a screenshot of the opening paragraph, writing "Instantly legendary lede," gaining over 1,600 retweets and 20,000 likes in less than a day (shown below, left). User @MargBarAmerica^[5] joked that Barlow was being overly dramatic, sarcastically quipping, "a pogrom is when you call me eve fartlow," gaining over 930 retweets and 10,900 likes (shown below, right).

Due to Barlow saying in the first sentence, "I don’t know who crafted the first tweet that simply said 'Eve Fartlow,'" multiple users searched for the first instance, leading @SAMOYED's tweet^[2] to gain over 170 retweets and 1,600 likes. Others began making memes based on the article. User @bigblackjacobin^[6] posted a "You're Laughing?" joke tailored to the article, gaining over 700 retweets and 11,000 likes (shown below, left). User @ShafaRameez^[7] posted an I Can Excuse Racism parody of the article, gaining over 490 retweets and 3,000 likes (shown below, right).

The article and reactions to it caused "Eve Fartlow" to trend on Twitter that evening.^[8]

October 2023 Resurgence

In October of 2023, amidst the Israel-Hamas conflict, Barlow tweeted strong Zionist opinions about the situation. One of the more incendiary takes was saying she understood why Germans supported Nazis but could not understand why people supported Palestine (shown below).

This led to a resurgence of the nickname "Eve Fartlow," causing the phrase to trend on Twitter on October 16th, 2023 (example tweets shown below).

Search Interest

External References