On September 1, 2023, Usada Pekora, a Hololive Vtuber, was part of a widespread misunderstanding on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. For a moment, the way X handled some trending topics resulted in a pool of her Japanese audience being convinced she would be graduating. [Thanks, Inside Games!]
The Usada Pekora graduation misunderstanding began after she posted an announcement on her official social media account that she would be taking a break from streaming in order to rest her throat due to pain she was experiencing.
今日は喉休めでお休みぺこ(՞-ω-՞)💡
— 兎田ぺこら👯♀️ホロライブ3期生 (@usadapekora) September 1, 2023
Fans reacted by showing their support and understanding using the hashtag #了解ぺこ, or “Got it, Peko.” Once the hashtag became a trending topic, the associated hashtags “retirement” and “thank you for everything” were displayed directly underneath it.
Usada Pekora herself was surprised by the associated hashtags, responding with a post including a screenshot of the trending topic and a message that read “Peko!?!?!?!?!?”
ぺこ！？！？！？！？！？ pic.twitter.com/SayJlqA0Hv
— 兎田ぺこら👯♀️ホロライブ3期生 (@usadapekora) September 1, 2023
This mistake was born from a flaw in how trending topics on X are shown. It has a feature that displays hashtags that include words related to the words in the trending topic, but are not necessarily actually connected to it. The truth was that both the “retirement” and “thank you for everything” hashtags that were shown in association with Pekora’s hashtag had nothing to do with her.
Usada Pekora is only briefly and temporarily taking a break for her health.
