Why Memes Are Such a Powerful Tool for Misinformation

Since the 2000s, the rise of social media has effectively obliterated the old model of disseminating information. According to the Pew Research Center, about two thirds of Americans now get their news on social media at least some of the time. This is a stark contrast to how people got their news at the beginning of the 21st century. In 2002, 57% of people cited television as a daily source of news and 47% of people said they read newspapers everyday. Social media was hardly a blip on the radar at this point.

What’s especially significant about this shift is that social media hasn’t just altered the consumption of information; it’s also changed how information is produced and disseminated. The average individual with a computer and a social media account can now be a producer of information as well as a consumer. While this can partly be viewed as a democratization of news and information production, it comes at significant risks and costs to the larger society. Misinformation isn’t just a nuisance but a real threat to public health and safety. Slowing the spread of misinformation has become more challenging, however, due to one of social media’s most defining creations: the “meme.”

Memes and the Spread of Misinformation

The creation and evolution of what are popularly called “memes” has been playing an increasingly prominent role in the use of social media to spread misinformation. Whereas misinformation used to largely consist of articles, which had the disadvantage of needing to be written and read, the ease of creating, viewing, and sharing memes has made it possible for the spread of information (and misinformation) to occur at a blinding pace. Memes go viral a lot more easily than articles can. This presents significant problems for society because the information that memes convey can’t be properly checked for their accuracy, at least not sufficiently enough for the fast rate at which they’re produced and the speed and ease with which they spread.

When there is an excess of misinformation, it not only undermines the ability of individuals to be properly informed, it also has the harmful effect of diminishing the legitimacy of accurate information. A majority of Americans report having lost trust in the mainstream media over the past decade, with this mistrust being even more pronounced among those who identify as Republicans (94%) or politically conservative (95%). The reasons for this waning trust are likely varied, and a deep analysis of these reasons is beyond the scope of this article. But it’s probable that the deluge of misinformation, much of it specifically aimed at undermining the credibility of the press, has played a role. It becomes increasingly difficult for the public to discern what’s what when sources of misinformation relentlessly accuse legitimate sources of information as being “fake news.”

The potential harm that can ensue as a result is real and profound. A single meme disseminated in December of 2020 led to the recirculation of a conspiracy theory linking the COVID-19 vaccine to 5G. The meme claims to depict the architecture of a microchip embedded in the vaccine when in actuality it’s the diagram for the electric circuit of a guitar pedal. A newly published study measured a 6.2% decline in people who expressed the intention to get vaccinated as a result of COVID-19 and vaccine-related misinformation. Under the right conditions, memes can add fuel to a fire of rage that ends in violence.

The Social and Cultural Roles of Memes

Notwithstanding their potentially harmful effects, memes serve a variety of significant social and cultural roles in society which, depending on the nature of the specific memes, can be beneficial. Socially, the creating and sharing of memes creates a sense of belonging to a community and can be a form of meaningful communication. They can also be a form of collective coping, which is obviously important during a pandemic. Culturally, memes shape and direct our understanding of the culture around and can be a form of cultural transmission.

Given their numerous social and cultural functions, it’s perhaps not surprising that memes can often appeal to those who are socially anxious or don’t feel integrated with the larger society or with certain groups within that society. The drive towards weaponing them and willfully using them for misinformation may also be stronger among those who feel excluded, anxious, disconnected, or existentially threatened in some way since those who are attracted to conspiracy theories tend to exhibit higher incidence of these traits. Not surprisingly, memes have increasingly become a primary means of communication for far-right organizations such as the Boogaloo Movement and the Proud Boys who, when seeking new recruits, prey on individuals feeling anxious about shifting social and cultural dynamics. Even as the memes that these groups create and circulate sow rage and mistrust, for the members of the groups the act of sharing these memes creates feelings of community, identity, and belonging. These benefits can be so rewarding that individuals overlook or refuse to acknowledge that the content they’re sharing is of dispute.

The Future of Memes and Misinformation

There’s been a growing recognition of the harm that misinformation, and that memes specifically, can do to society. With that recognition has come the call for measures to stem the problem. At this time, there is not a clear solution but rather a handful of imperfect methods. One is the use of A.I. to detect memes that are hateful or contain misinformation, but as of yet the technology isn’t sophisticated enough to do this effectively. A.I. isn’t as good as humans at understanding irony or sarcasm, for instance. There are also ways for meme creators to manipulate image and text in such a way as to confuse A.I.

Since A.I. still has a ways to go, there are also ways that humans can be mobilized to help. Initiatives like Facebook’s Hateful Memes Challenge and Twitter’s Birdwatch recruit users to serve as content moderators. We are also seeing more articles about how everyday consumers of social media can be more discerning and learn to recognize hateful memes or misinformation when they see it. This puts some of the onus on the public whereas with measures like community guidelines, banning offending accounts, and employing A.I. to filter out problematic content, the onus is on the tech companies.

As with social media itself, given the numerous positive functions that memes can play, the solution isn’t to get rid of the medium but to better moderate its use. As imperfect as the current methods being used may be, we should remember that they’re still being developed. Moreover, they are a sign that our society is increasingly realizing the double-edged nature of memes, and the solving of any problem, as we know, begins with recognition.

Dr. Kent Bausman, a professor in the Online Sociology program at Maryville University