The EU recently passed Article 13, which by law, requires social media platforms like facebook and instagram to scan for stolen content. Recently gaining huge widespread popularity, memes have become very present within social media, and will likely be very hard to eradicate. I'm particularly interested by this topic because memes have become so prevelant within the internet and I'm intrigued at how memes will by affected by the passing of Article 13. My google trends serches represent my findings as of now.

What is a meme?

A meme is defined as "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture"

Some background on memes

Before the passing of this article, memes have been gaining huge amounts of popularity since 2012, or have been around since the creation of most social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Memes can help an individual express how they feel through the use of comedy, and are also a great form of criticism through comedic relief. Memes can vary in form; Some memes are videos, others are pictures. However more recently, accounts on these social media platforms have increased in popularity by stealing memes others create. Through the passing of Article 13, the EU hopes to rid the internet of meme thiefs.

This meme shows the difficulties of those who post memes after article 13, and pokes fun at the decision of the EU

Links:

https://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/blog/2018/09/23/article-13-the-end-of-internet-freedom-and-memes/

This website calls out the EU for violating individual freedom on the internet

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44412025

This website summarizes Article 13 and the decision of the EU

https://www.cnet.com/news/eus-proposed-article-13-could-threaten-the-internet-memes/

This website describes the possible effects this Article could have on the internet as a whole

Data Page -> Data Page Link.