Memes: Between Humor and Hoax
A $50,000 reward is being offered. It could be the text accompanying an image of a cowboy standing in the doorway of an Old West saloon. However, this sign is actually posted on WhatsApp’s website, and instead of cowboys, the reward is for any idea or research that could help solve the problem of disinformation spread through memes and other deceptive content.
Three years ago, the company that owns WhatsApp offered a $50,000 reward to anyone capable of devising a solution to one of the platform’s biggest issues: the ease with which fake news could spread. And what was the outcome? Today, WhatsApp remains a prime vehicle for spreading fake news, despite the platform’s efforts to address the issue.
This ongoing concern is shared by María Victoria Mas, PhD in Communication and a professor at UIC, who specializes in disinformation research. “What happens with memes is that they circulate widely on private networks, like WhatsApp,” says Mas, adding, “We know that WhatsApp has been one of the main networks for sharing information.”
Nowadays, we think of memes as nothing more than funny images, but the term has a longer history. Richard Dawkins first defined a meme in 1976 in his book The Selfish Gene, where he described how culture is transmitted across generations. Dawkins defined memes as “units of culture” that spread through the transmission of ideas. What Dawkins couldn’t foresee in 1976 was how the internet would revolutionize his idea, turning memes into the ultimate form of online communication and, by extension, a powerful tool that could fall into the wrong hands.
Dawkins didn’t anticipate that it would all end up morphing into an image of Julio Iglesias with the text below: “And you know it!” Yet some things have held true, just as Dawkins anticipated. The clearest example is the way memes become part of our culture; who created the Julio Iglesias meme? Or the Willy Wonka meme? No one knows. One day, they emerged from a laptop or a smartphone and became integral parts of the internet and our culture.
What’s clear is that memes aren’t serious: a meme that isn’t funny isn’t really a meme. This is the point Ramón Salaverría, Journalism professor at the University of Navarra, makes when he explains, “A meme, in its very structure, includes a kind of knowing wink. Any social media user understands this when they see one.”
But just because memes are humorous doesn’t mean they’re harmless. Salaverría knows of cases where a joke stopped being funny: “There have been jokes that people actually started believing. The authors of these jokes, upon seeing that people took them seriously, had to step in and clarify that it was just a joke. Sometimes, what’s sent as a joke can be perceived as reality. There’s the interpretive ability of the creator, and then there’s the ability of the recipients to recognize what’s false.”
This means that memes aren’t harmless, and we’re now starting to see that. While no one uses memes as their primary source of information, that doesn’t mean they lack informational content. In fact, “meme wars” are now a standard feature in politics, and it’s not just internet trolls or bored teenagers in their basements who are making them. Governments, political candidates, and activists around the world have begun using memes as well. In 2019, just days before Spain’s general elections, the fact-checking organization Newtral published a video analyzing the central role memes played in the electoral campaign.
On an international scale, Russia used memes and other online tactics to influence the 2016 U.S. elections, employing a troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency to spread pro-Trump and anti-Clinton content across various online platforms. Both sides in territorial conflicts—such as Hong Kong and China, Gaza and Israel, and India and Pakistan—have used memes and viral propaganda to shape public opinion locally and internationally.
None of this is new; using images to persuade people is an age-old technique. Today’s memes are the equivalent of the propaganda posters from a century ago. The medium has changed, but the concept is remarkably similar. Carlos Mateos, coordinator of Salud Sin Bulos, explains that “in Jenner’s time, when he first developed vaccines, cartoons circulated claiming people would turn into cows.” Mateos points out that “memes do the same thing today, except that instead of a journalist or illustrator creating them, anyone can.”
Colour engraving, James Gillray, “The Cowpox Mark”, Wikimedia Commons
Social media is increasingly fertile ground for meme creators. This trend stems from the fact that these platforms are increasingly filled with images, videos, and emojis rather than text. TikTok, which revolves around video sharing, has become the third most downloaded app worldwide.
As social media evolves, so too does the way disinformation is spread. Ramón Salaverría, who has studied misinformation behavior on the internet, reflects on the role of these new platforms: “TikTok is pure audiovisual language. Text, when it appears, is secondary to the video and music. The evolution of misinformation content follows the most dominant social networks.”
Memes often follow a process called “trading up the chain.” Media entrepreneur Ryan Holiday coined this term to explain how disinformation campaigns using memes operate. According to him, “It all starts with a post on an unknown blog, and if everything goes well, someone with influence picks it up and shares it in a tweet, which helps it reach more reputable outlets.”
When you think about it, is there anything better suited than memes for spreading lies? Memes ensure quick transmission, they catch us off guard because “they’re just a joke,” and to top it all off, we rarely know where they originated.
Does this mean we should stop sending memes to friends? Not at all. Memes are as effective at raising awareness as they are at undermining it—they’re like posters or books. What we need is education and a bit more skepticism. Just as our mothers taught us not to trust strangers handing out candy outside school, we should apply the same caution to whoever sends us memes.