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Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden faced off Sunday night in the 2020 election cycle's first Democratic presidential debate to feature just the two candidates.

During the debate, Sanders encouraged viewers to go to "the YouTube" to check out Biden's past remarks on Social Security.

Social-media users were quick to point out the phrasing quirk, and YouTube capitalized on it by quickly changing its Twitter name to "The YouTube."

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The way Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont chose to refer to YouTube during Sunday night's Democratic presidential debate was quick to elicit reactions from internet users — and YouTube itself.

Sanders faced former Vice President Joe Biden in the first one-on-one debate of the cycle. During the debate, Sanders challenged Biden's record on Social Security and encouraged viewers to "go to the YouTube" for video proof.

Viewers were quick to latch on to the odd phrasing: YouTube, along with other popular social networks like Facebook and TikTok, isn't frequently preceded by "the," though it's used ahead of online-related terms like "the internet." (Facebook famously dropped the "the.")

Sanders' comment at the debate was also immediately followed with a tweet from the Vermont senator's Twitter account using the same phrasing about "the YouTube."

The video Sanders directed Twitter users to watch shows Biden during a 2007 interview in which he says Social Security is "absolutely" something that could be sacrificed during budget cuts. Sanders had argued at the debate that YouTube users could find videos of Biden as a senator being open to Social Security cuts.

But it wasn't long before jokes and memes about "the YouTube" started taking over social media and users got the phrase trending on Twitter.

But regular users and debate viewers weren't the only ones to take notice of Sanders' quirky phrasing. YouTube changed its name on Twitter to "The YouTube," though the name had been changed back to just "YouTube" by Monday morning.

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