2010s

WikiLeaks gained international attention for publishing classified information on topics related to Guantánamo Bay, Syria, the Afghan and Iraq wars, and United States diplomacy.

[112][113] Social media was heralded as the driving force behind the swift spread of revolution throughout the world, as new protests appeared in response to success stories shared from those taking place in other countries.

[114] Governments also scrutinised or suppressed discussion in online forums through accusing content creators of unrelated crimes or shutting down communication on specific sites or groups, such as through Facebook.

Russia also waged information warfare campaigns against its geopolitical foes, interfering in the 2016 U.S. elections via hacking and leaking emails of U.S. political party leadership and by spreading disinformation via the Internet Research Agency.

[192][193][194] Around the middle of the decade, phenomenon such as white nationalism, identitarianism and emboldened feelings of nativism saw a marked reemergence in the West due to drastically increased migration and corresponding crime and amongst both the right and left general dissatisfaction with Western government and Media responses to certain issues.

[206][207] Examples of populist country leaders were just as extensive, with Donald Trump,[208] Narendra Modi,[209] Andrés Manuel López Obrador,[210] Hugo Chávez,[211] Matteo Salvini,[212] Jair Bolsonaro,[213] Rodrigo Duterte,[214] Boris Johnson, Viktor Orbán and Alexis Tsipras left and right-wing, described as such.

[230] Events referred to as the Arab Winter include those in Egypt that led to the removal of Mohamed Morsi and the seizure of power by General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in an anti-Muslim Brotherhood campaign.

Sitting world leaders such as Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Kim Jong-il of North Korea, Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Lech Kaczyński of Poland, Zillur Rahman of Bangladesh, Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan and Beji Caid Essebsi of Tunisia, all died in office, as did former leaders Fidel Castro, Lee Kuan Yew, Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, Robert Mugabe, Giulio Andreotti, Francesco Cossiga, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Jacques Chirac, Helmut Schmidt, Helmut Kohl, Hussain Mohammad Ershad, Mohamed Morsi, Ariel Sharon, Shimon Peres, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Václav Havel, Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, B. J. Habibie, Yasuhiro Nakasone, Alan García, Jorge Rafael Videla, Néstor Kirchner, Fernando de la Rúa, Patricio Aylwin, Itamar Franco, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and George H. W. Bush.

[497] In 2018, partially due to a shale boom, the United States overcame Russia and Saudi Arabia in becoming the world's largest crude oil producer, the first time since 1973.

"[500] In 2018, United States President Donald Trump announced he would put into place new tariffs on some Chinese products, starting the 'US-China Trade War', an economic conflict involving the world's two largest economies.

As part of his 'America First' policy, Trump also announced new tariffs were being placed on countries around the world for various products such as steel and aluminium, which also drew some economic retaliation from traditional U.S. trade partners.

Motion capture grew in terms of its realism and reach, and was seen in movies like Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Avengers, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Avengers: Endgame grossed over $2.7 billion worldwide, surpassed Infinity War's entire theatrical run in just eleven days, broke numerous box office records, and became the highest-grossing film of all time.

The decade also saw many popular and critically acclaimed theatrical releases of varying genres, such as The Social Network, Her, 12 Years a Slave, Boyhood, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, The Edge of Seventeen, The Fault in Our Stars, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Artist, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Easy A, Rust and Bone, Two Days, One Night, Whiplash, 21 Jump Street, Eighth Grade, Steve Jobs, Paddington and its sequel Paddington 2, Lady Bird, La La Land, Green Book, Get Out, Parasite, Love, Simon, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Uncut Gems.

Popular cartoons of the 2010s included the likes of Adventure Time, The Loud House, Regular Show, Steven Universe, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Gravity Falls, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Over the Garden Wall, The Amazing World of Gumball, and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (which, under its G4 status, became a pop culture phenomenon in its own right, thanks to its controversial, but loyal cult following known as "Bronies" who peaked in 2012–2015), along with long-running cartoons SpongeBob SquarePants, Phineas and Ferb, and Arthur.

Nickelodeon brought back three classic Nicktoons; Hey Arnold!, Rocko's Modern Life (which was themed around late 2010s culture), and Invader Zim near the end of the decade, turning them into reboot films.

Anime broadened its appeal worldwide with shows such as Attack on Titan, Akame ga Kill!, Assassination Classroom, Madoka Magica, Mob Psycho 100, Darling in the Franxx, Dragon Ball Super, Fairy Tail, Gate, Black Clover, Tokyo Ghoul, Given, KonoSuba, Food Wars!, Haikyu!

(continuing from the 2000s), Big Mouth, and Bob's Burgers among many others; while long-running adult animations like Family Guy, Futurama, South Park, The Simpsons, Robot Chicken, and 2011's Beavis and Butt-Head revival have remained popular.

[552][553] Other YouTubers that constantly received views within the millions or went viral during the decade included the likes of bill wurtz for his "history of japan" and "history of the entire world i guess" videos (and music like "and the day goes on"), Swoozie, Etika (and his fanbase the "JOYCONBOYZ"), REACT, WatchMojo, The Joe Rogan Experience, The Nostalgia Critic, Studio C, Babish Culinary Universe, Good Mythical Morning, Penguinz0, Vsauce, CGP Gray, Kurzgesagt, Matpat, MrBeast, Scott the Woz, TheOdd1sOut, Domics, and Jaiden Animations among many others.

[559][note 2] Other popular musical solo artists of the 2010s included Adele, Ed Sheeran, Beyoncé, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, the Weeknd, Frank Ocean, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Khalid, Sam Smith, Travis Scott, Cardi B, Future, Shawn Mendes, Post Malone, Kesha, Selena Gomez and Fetty Wap.

[559] Popular musical groups of the decade included One Direction, BTS, Imagine Dragons, Mumford & Sons, Arcade Fire, Twenty One Pilots, Migos, Swedish House Mafia, Bon Iver, Zac Brown Band, Maroon 5, Alabama Shakes, the Chainsmokers, OneRepublic, Vampire Weekend, the Lumineers, Lady A, Fun, 5 Seconds of Summer and Anthem Lights.

Successful duos included the Black Keys, Run the Jewels, Matt and Kim, Rae Sremmurd, Love and Theft, LMFAO, Garfunkel and Oates and Dan + Shay.

Several prominent musicians from past decades died in the 2010s, including Ronnie James Dio in 2010, Gil Scott-Heron and Amy Winehouse in 2011, Whitney Houston and Adam Yauch in 2012, Lou Reed in 2013, Joe Cocker in 2014, Ben E. King, B.B.

King and Lemmy Kilmister in 2015, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Phife Dawg, Merle Haggard, Prince, Pete Burns, Leonard Cohen and George Michael all in 2016, Chuck Berry, Chris Cornell, Prodigy and Tom Petty in 2017, Aretha Franklin in 2018, and Keith Flint in 2019.

There were also several deaths of newer hip hop artists who had started or first became successful in the 2010s, including Capital Steez, Lil Peep, XXXTentacion, Mac Miller, Nipsey Hussle, Juice WRLD and others.

Popular athletes of the decade included Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Megan Rapinoe, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Tiger Woods, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Canelo Álvarez, Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic, Kyle Busch, Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey, Mike Trout, Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, Shaun White, Kelly Slater, Simone Biles, Sidney Crosby and many more.

In June 2017, rock climber Alex Honnold became the first person in history to free solo climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, an accomplishment that one commentator described as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever."

Managers like Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti, Jurgen Klopp, Mauricio Pochettino, Didier Deschamps, Antonio Conte, and Luis Enrique were influential during this era of football.

An article in the New York Times stated: "With the rise of nationalist movements and a backlash against globalisation on both sides of the Atlantic, the liberal post-World War II order – based on economic integration and international institutions – began to unravel."

It heavily discussed the US presidency of Donald Trump (a reality TV Star and businessman with no political experience at the time of taking office, succeeding Barack Obama) whilst also commenting, "Echoes of Mr. Trump's nationalist populism can be found in Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain's recent electoral victory and the Brexit referendum of 2016, and in the ascent of the far-right President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India.