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#8: International Media

Social Media Laws -  Ban on memes? 

What is a meme?

According to a quick wikipedia search, "A meme (/miːm/ MEEM[1][2][3]) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture—often with the aim of conveying a particular phenomenon, theme, or meaning represented by the meme". 

Why does it matter?

You may not realize it, but memes are super important to our internet culture. Okay so I am a little ashamed that I just used the words "internet culture", but it is what it is. It is almost impossible to get on any social media without seeing one of these little buggers. They are hilarious, sometimes controversial, sometimes just dumb, and overall a great thing to have clogging up your phone memory. 

What would happen if we no longer could post memes? The world as we know it would implode- okay maybe not. That's a little dramatic. A new EU copyright law may just be what brings on the armageddon of the internet. Net Neutrality who? 

This law is called the European Union Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. You may be out of breath after reading that, but that's the least of your worries. If you're American like me you have nothing to worry about- cue the star spangled banner playing in the distance. This law ideally protects copyrighted work. Which is good, everyone wants credit for their own work right? 

What does this mean for the memes?

"Currently, companies like Facebook and YouTube will remove copyrighted work if asked, but are not financially responsible for its upload. In reality, the new law — which has recently been backed by members of the European Parliament — will be difficult to enforce without the help of filters. And it is this piece of technology that could spell the accidental ban of memes." Bustle





This is troublesome for memes and GIFs! They thrive on copyrighted content. Memes don't make money from this copyrighted content, but they still could possibly be banned.  In fact, memes and GIFs can be used to promote things on social media. Think back to the sheer amount of One Dance by Drake memes. 


Companies are telling us not to worry- our precious memes are safe. They will somehow filter out the memes from the supposedly banned copyrighted content. How exactly are they supposed to filter out these goldmines from the supposed bane of the internet? It is going to be pretty difficult. 

"As Wired explains, Article 13 specifically states that certain platforms will need to install upload filters. The only way a platform that hosts user-generated content will be able to avoid implementing these filters is if it ticks all three of the following boxes:
It has been around for less than three years.
It has an annual turnover below €10 million.
It has less than five million unique monthly visitors." (Bustle).

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