Momo

About

About

Momo is a nickname given to a sculpture of a young woman with long black hair, large bulging eyes, a wide smile and bird legs. In 2018, pictures of the sculpture became associated with an urban legend involving a WhatsApp phone number that messages dangerous tasks to those who attempts to contact it, linked to a hoax game referred to as the Momo Challenge or Momo Game. The alleged game, which premise was similar to the Blue Whale Challenge , was revealed to be hoax, with law enforcement not being able to confirm any cases of harm. The challenge briefly regained popularity in 2019, while Momo became a subject of memes , fan art and other content.

Origin

Origin

In 2016, the sculpture was created by the Japanese artist Keisuke Aiso (Aisawa) from the special effects company Link Factory and placed on display at the Vanilla Gallery in Tokyo, Japan. ^{[6] [10]} On August 25th, 2016, Instagram ^[2] user nanaakooo posted a photograph of the sculpture (shown below).

On August 26th, Instagram users @ma_kimodo_shi ^[4] and @j_s_rock ^[3] posted photographs of the sculpture (shown below).

Pictures of it subsequently became an urban legend on the Spanish-speaking web and was associated with "a phone number that could be added to WhatsApp."

Spread

Spread

On July 10th, 2018, Redditor AlmightySosa00 submitted a cropped picture of the sculpture to /r/creepy, ^[3] where it received upwards of 4,700 points (89% upvoted) and 900 comments within 48 hours. On the following day, AlmightySosa00 ^[12] shared another photograph of the sculpture.

In early July 2018, posts daring users to text one of several numbers in WhatsApp gained viral spread among Spanish-speaking users on Facebook . The mentioned accounts had the photograph of Momo set as their profile picture.

On July 10th, YouTuber ^[13] El Deadpool shared a video in which they messaged one of the numbers associated with the urban legend.

On July 11th, YouTuber ^[22] ReignBot uploaded a video on the viral photographs of the sculpture titled "Exploring The Momo Situation," which discussed the urban legend and investigated several WhatsApp phone numbers associated with it. Within 24 hours, the video gathered upwards of 96,000 views and 3,700 comments.

That day, a picture of the sculpture was submitted in a post titled "Momo thread" on 4chan 's /x/ (paranormal) board (shown below). ^[5]

On July 11th, an unknown Redditor ^[1] posted an inquiry about the spreading pictures in /r/OutOfTheLoop subreddit.

On July 13th, 2018, Computer Crime Investigation Unit for the Mexican state of Tabasco issued ^[23] a warning against conversing with Momo WhatsApp accounts, stating that scammers can be using them to steal personal data (shown below).