What is it called when the internet makes something small and minor seem bigger and worser than it actually is?

To "blow out of proportion".

Or

To "make a mountain out of a molehill"

Sensationalization

Rage bait?

Tuesday

Hyperbole.

Monetization.

"Distraction"

The internet

serious answer: overreaction is another term people haven't mentioned yet

I feel like "going viral" partly covers that? When you make an offensive tweet before boarding a plane, and get turn off flight mode to realise the world has judged you and you've lost your job?

If you specifically mean how the Internet can misrepresented a country because most people online have never been to Montenegro or Bhutan, then it's maybe just "bias"?

Good Grief, people:

EMBIGGEN.

Though totally blow out of proportion would be more sane, "embiggen" nails it in a single word.

_ /\ _

You night be thinking of the Streisand effect, which is a little different, but very similar

For profit media. Opportunistic.

Doxing is when you expose someone's (or a business's) identity or name or location for the internet to brigade.

Most of the time the target has faced some controversy (often petty and small) and once the internet catches wind, a flurry of fury and hate is unleashed upon the target.

Is this what you mean?

In general: a mismatch between media reality and reality - that's pre-internet terminology, mind you, but it applies.

Standard Operating Practice of the Internet.

Streisand Effect.