Because G+—the real G+, the one from 2012 to 2015—was not like other social media. It had no likes count visible to the public. No rage-bait algorithm. No revenge-porn shortcuts. What it had was . You could share a breakdown with your "Close Friends" circle, a business proposal with "Colleagues," and a secret poetry draft with "Moonlight Writers." Nothing bled over. No cross-pollination of horror.

The feed went dark for 0.4 seconds.

He tapped it.

By the end of the week, the news broke. A glitch? A forgotten server in a Finnish data center that had reconnected to a dormant backup? No one knew. Google issued a canned statement: "We are investigating unusual activity on legacy services. Please disregard."

But nobody disregarded.