Google’s analysis shows the fad faded fast. ![]() The top posts queried Google for “Momo historia,” or the meme’s background, “Momo WhatsApp,” and “Momo numero,” as users were searching for "Momo’s" potential phone number. It’s also possible for strangers to message WhatsApp users with lax security settings with any other kind of photo or name, not just one purporting to be “Momo.”Īccording to a Google Trends analysis, searches for Momo spiked in Bolivia and Argentina to an all-time high the week of July 15. ![]() It’s possible, Mark claimed at the time, WhatsApp users with less strict security settings could receive a message from an unknown account using the photo of Momo as a profile picture, then start any kind of conversation. Quickly, however, security experts like Dfndr’s Jeannie Mark denounced it as a “social engineering scheme” that “echoed reports of the Blue Whale Challenge that went viral in 2016, which has been debated as a hoax.” Last July, the attorney general of Tabasco, Mexico, issued a warning that receiving messages from people posing as Momo on WhatsApp could result in a wide range of negative consequences, including “theft of personal information, incitement to suicide or violence, extortion, harassment and disorders such as insomnia, anxiety and depression.” Mirroring its trajectory in the U.S., the meme drew various warnings from local police and local news broadcasts about its potential danger, before dying out in less than a month. The purportedly dangerous meme, however, is a variation of a widespread viral hoax that spread through the Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp in South America last July, then moved across India and several countries in Europe before reigniting this week.ĭire warnings about the image, which is a picture of a Japanese sculpture featuring the face of a ghostly young girl atop a bird’s body, began as a chain letter that was sent around the messaging app in Bolivia, Argentina and Mexico last year. A global social media hoax about a paranormal threat to kids morphed into a U.S. Videos encouraging harmful and dangerous challenges are against our policies,” a company spokesperson wrote on Twitter. “We’ve seen no recent evidence of videos promoting the Momo Challenge on YouTube. A YouTube spokesperson said the company has seen no evidence of Momo suicide dares spliced into content for children, and these kinds of viral “challenges” are against the company’s terms of service.
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