Further reading
- https://fas.org/irp/agency/army/mipb/2010_02.pdf "Memetic Warfare: The Future of War"; Hancock, Brian J. 2010Health
Memetic warfare is a modern form of information warfare and psychological warfare that involves the propagation of memes on social media. While different, memetic warfare shares similarities with traditional propaganda and misinformation tactics, developing into a more common tool used by government institutions and other groups to influence public opinion.
The concept of memetics derives from the book "The Selfish Gene" (1976) by Richard Dawkins, being defined as a non-genetic means of transferring information from one individual to another. [1]
Over time, the term "meme" became commonly understood as an image, text, video, or other transferable form of digital information, typically spread for the purpose of humor. [2]
Memetics: A Growth Industry in US Military Operations was published in 2005 by Michael Prosser, now a Lieutenant Colonel in the Marine Corps. He proposed the creation of a 'Meme Warfare Center'. [3]
In Evolutionary Psychology, Memes and the Origin of War (2006), Keith Henson defined memes as "replicating information patterns: ways to do things, learned elements of culture, beliefs, or ideas."
Memetic warfare has been seriously studied as an important concept with respect to information warfare by NATO's Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence. Jeff Giesea, writing in NATO's Stratcom COE Defense Strategic Communications journal, defines memetic warfare as "competition over narrative, ideas, and social control in a social-media battlefield. One might think of it as a subset of 'information operations' tailored to social media. Information operations involve the collection and dissemination of information to establish a competitive advantage over an opponent". [4] [5] According to Jacob Siegel, "Memes appear to function like the IEDs of information warfare. They are natural tools of an insurgency; great for blowing things up, but likely to sabotage the desired effects when handled by the larger actor in an asymmetric conflict." [6]
The Taiwanese government and Audrey Tang, its Minister of Digital Affairs, announced their intention to install memetic engineering teams in government to respond to disinformation efforts using a “humor over rumor” approach. The stated purpose of this approach is primarily to counter Chinese political warfare efforts and domestic disinformation. [7]
Evidence of memetic warfare and other applications of cyber-attacks aiding Russia in their efforts to annex Crimea has been made apparent by reports of roughly 19 million dollars being spent to fund "troll farms" and bot accounts by the Russian government. [8] This campaign intended to spread pro-Russian sentiment on social media platforms, particularly targeting the ethnically Russian populations living within Crimea. This event is widely considered to be Russia's proof of concept for modern information warfare and serves as a template for future instances of memetic warfare. [9]
Memetic warfare on the part of 4chan and r/The_Donald sub-reddit is widely credited with assisting Donald Trump in winning the election in an event they call 'The Great Meme War'. According to Ben Schreckinger, "a group of anonymous keyboard commandos conquered the internet for Donald Trump—and plans to deliver Europe to the far right." [10]
In a 2018 study, a team that analyzed a 160M image dataset discovered that the 4chan message board /pol/ and subreddit r/The_Donald were particularly effective at spreading memes. They found that /pol/ substantially influenced the meme ecosystem by posting a large number of memes, while r/The_Donald was the most efficient community in pushing memes to both fringe and mainstream web communities. [11]
Russian troll factories, like the Internet Research Agency (IRA) and the Social Design Agency, increased their efforts after the invasion, operating with the Maskirovka (to mask) strategy, a strategy that relies on distorting information in order to manipulate public perception. In response, Ukrainian accounts have started using memes as a way to debunk the Russian narratives. [12]
Ukrainian Twitter accounts like @Ukraine, @DefenceU, and @uamemes-forces would spread the truth about what was happening in Ukraine during the war using memes. It was effective in garnering public sympathy for Ukraine. Makhortykh and Sydorova say that pictures of kids are used to “evoke compassion from the potential audience by using sentimental images." People would additionally put Ukrainian flags in their bio in order to show support. [13]
Information warfare spread during the 2024 election, with China, Russia, and Iran increasing their support of Trump leading up to the election, using memes as one form of content to spread propaganda and misinformation. [14] Similes during the election in the form of memes were also rampant on Twitter, with one meme claiming Kamala Harris's campaign was like "the erratic movement of a faulty shopping cart." [15]
Memes made using Generative AI were also used from both sides of the election to sway the votes, as either a form of support within sides or as attacks on the opposing side. [16]
In fiction, the 2002 game Transhuman Space presented the world of 2100 as having "memetics" as a key technology, and the 2004 expansion "Transhuman Space: Toxic Memes" gave examples of "memetic warfare agents". [17]
The Unified Way is a cult of persistent popularity across Asia and into the Middle East. It is also a memetic warfare agent, a leftover from the buildup to the Pacific War that may well cause more damage than all of the dormant AKVs in orbit.Alt URL
