Shutterstock
World War III began trending on Tuesday after the Turkish military downed a Russian fighter jet close to the Syrian border, quickly sending a terrified Twitter into panic.
Yet rather than indicating the genuine start of a third world war, the "most intelligent social network" appears to have simply sparked a self-fulfilling trend circle sending the phrase to the top of the site.
People appeared to be longing for an answer to the question, "Has World War III begun?" It appears that answer is no. Well, not yet.
Here's how the drama unfolded...
The vicious trend circle
The film analogies
The genuine concern
The high-brow analysis
Calm it, Twitter.