#47Traitors

Social media roared with outrage at Senate Republicans in response to a letter sent to Iran in which Republicans warned Iranian leaders that after President Obama left office, they would remain in office. The 47 Republicans who signed this letter warned that they could effectively reverse any U.S.–Iran agreements that do not meet their expectations.

#TheDress

It was nearly impossible to miss this one on social media. The actual dress was blue and black, but because of the way the dress was captured in the picture circulated on social media, people saw the dress differently depending on their sensitivity to the blue background lighting in the photo.

#WorstDateIn5Words

Although this was a random hashtag that trended for no apparent reason, the tweets it prompted were hilarious. Almost everything that could go wrong with a date was put into five-word descriptions of the worst possible scenarios.

#BlackOutDay

A social media campaign launched this past month to celebrate African American beauty. This hashtag accompanies pictures of people of color from all around the world.

#beefban

In response to the ban on beef introduced  in India, this hashtag trended worldwide on social media as citizens of India called for the reversal of the law. This may seem surprising in a country where cows are revered by a whopping 1.2 billion Hindus, but the law stemmed from calls to separate religion from government.