De Vries assassination dominated NL residents' Twitter discussions this year

The violent death of Peter R. de Vries was also much discussed on Twitter this year. The most popular tweet of the year was a message that his son Royce de Vries posted a day after the shooting. In it, he said that his family's worst nightmare had come true. The tweet was massively liked and shared.

Google's annual review also showed the impact of the crime reporter's assassination. The name Peter R. de Vries was the trending search there, which means that compared to previous years, it was googled a lot. 

The second most popular tweet in the Netherlands was a post by Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen. After his bad crash on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix, he accused his rival Lewis Hamilton of a dangerous move and called Hamilton's way of celebrating his victory unsportsmanlike.

Another popular tweet was from Gregory Sedoc, who reacted frantically to athlete Sifan Hassan's gold medal at the Olympics. The action #ZiekVeelLiefdeVoorRuud, a statement of support for the seriously ill and eventually deceased journalist Ruud ten Wolde (29), was also widely shared on Twitter.

Twitter users also talked a lot about digital currency. This year, the most used hashtags in the Netherlands were #bitcoin, #nft, and #crypto. The top ten also include hashtags related to the coronavirus pandemic, such as #avondklok, #corona, and #coronamaatregelen.