Russia did it first. In 2015, Roskomnadzor, Russia’s state internet regulator, posted about banning the use and creation of any memes that inaccurately depict any public figure.
Spain is following in Russia’s steps by similarly proposing the idea to ban memes that make fun of political figures.
This plan backfired when the people of Spain made a meme out of the situation.
The people of Spain protest that this is an infringement upon their freedom of speech. Sounds pretty similar to something American people would protest.
As we all know, political memes are very popular in the United States. Throughout the election season, many memes came out that made fun of the politicians involved and also managed to educate about the candidates.
Some of us on Editorial Board admit to not knowing about some issues if it were not for political memes. They’ve evolved to be something much more than a passing joke on the internet.
They have wiggled their way into everyday life and have spawned political discussion and more memes. The greatest representation of a meme coming to life showed itself during the election.
The rumor went around that 11,000 people voted for Harambe as president. Although it has been proven that this could not be actually possible, the fact that some Americans were willing to vote for a dead gorilla says something extremely important about our current state of affairs.
Another negative backlash of memes in the election was the proclamation that Ted Cruz was actually the Zodiac killer. Many reporters and people in public actually asked Cruz if he was the Zodiac killer when he was still in the running for Republican nominee.
On a more serious level, Spain hopes to enlighten the population about the importance of not posting pictures of people without their consent. A majority of popular memes exploit people without their consent to have their picture spread across the internet to be poked and prodded at.
Remember Alex from Target? The internet drooled over a teenage boy working at Target when a customer took a picture of him and it went viral.
This poor kid didn’t ask to have his picture taken then raised to fame, and it even interfered with his job because everyone came to see the hot Target cashier.
Other instances have come up where women were exposed in every way without their permission and then their bodies were ridiculed.
We all hate when our friends tag us in that ugly picture on social media, so why do we think it’s okay to share memes or jokes about people we don’t know?
Perhaps we hope a good meme always has obtained all forms of consent before it was posted.
Spain’s proposed legislation on memes could teach Americans a few lessons about consent.
We have mixed feelings about Spain’s legislation because we believe in freedom of speech but also understand what memes have done to politics.
We will never forget the quick rise of Ted Cruz, the Zodiac killer, memes or how memes have helped us cope with traumatic events like the passing of Harambe. Currently, though, we are greatly enjoying the memes of Joe Biden and President Obama. https://www.buzzfeed.com/nylawissa/joe-biden-gave-us-petty-goals - jk
Memes are jokes at the end of the day. Sometimes they are educational, other times they are just silly and overdone.
