c/banned-memes-talk

26

calebm46•1d ago

Question about that meme that got banned in the UK last month

I used to just shrug when memes got taken down on Twitter or Instagram, figured it was just the platform's rules. But after that 'Waving Flag' meme got pulled in London in June for supposedly inciting something vague, I started actually reading the government takedown notices. Anyone else check those transparency reports now or am I just being paranoid about free speech fading?

29

shanel13•1d ago

That $15 meme site hoodie got me flagged on Instagram last week

I bought a cheap hoodie from a site that prints banned memes on shirts. Cost me 15 bucks plus shipping. I wore it in a selfie and Instagram took it down in under an hour. The meme was just a screenshot of that Pepe frog drawing that some groups stole. It got me thinking about how these platforms decide what crosses the line. Has anyone else had a random product trigger a ban like this?

24

johnthompson•2d ago

Changed my mind about those 'free speech' meme ban petitions after losing $50 to a scam

Signaled a petition to save a banned meme from a major platform, paid $50 for expedited processing, and the site vanished a week later no refund. Anyone else get burned by these fake activism sites?

10

loganburns•3d ago

My cousin in Ohio made me rethink why I share banned memes at all

I was at a family cookout last month in Columbus and my cousin, who works in HR, asked why I get so worked up over a pixel joke. She said 'you're not changing anyone's mind, you're just yelling into the void with memes nobody sees.' That hit different because she wasn't mad, she was just curious. It made me wonder if I'm really fighting for free speech or just posting for the rush of getting something taken down. Has anyone else had a normal person make you question your whole deal like that?

23

sarah198•3d ago

Rant: My dad laughed at my banned meme and it finally hit me

I was showing my dad this meme I made about climate policy that got flagged on Instagram last week. He just chuckled and said "you think that's bad, wait till you see what they banned in the 80s." He pulled out an old photocopied cartoon from his file cabinet that had gotten his friend fired from a government job in 1987. That's when I realized this whole fight over banned memes isn't new at all, people have been getting silenced for jokes for decades. Has anyone else had an older relative show you their own banned content from before the internet?

26

willow_ellis•3d ago

Finally got a meme reinstated after 3 appeals to Reddit's team

I spent 6 months trying to share this one panel about algorithmic bias that kept getting flagged as hate speech. On the third try I actually wrote a detailed explanation of the political satire intent and they reversed it. Has anyone else had luck with their appeal process?

4

riverhill•3d ago

Just saw the list of memes Italy banned last year and it's wild

I was reading through some EU digital policy stuff last night and found out Italy banned over 40 memes in 2023 alone. Most were just political satire about their prime minister or covid stuff. One of them was literally just a picture of a guy with a funny caption about vaccine mandates. It got me thinking how different the US and Europe are on free speech. Like here we can post almost anything as long as it's not direct threats or harassment. Over there they have these vague hate speech laws that let them take down anything they don't like. Has anyone else looked into what specific countries ban and how they decide what crosses the line?

28

ramirez.sage•6d ago

That flag meme ban in India really got me thinking differently

I saw a meme about a local political figure get banned on Instagram last week and it took me 45 minutes just to figure out why it was removed. The caption was just a joke about traffic in Mumbai, nothing even that wild. But then I looked into Section 69A of the IT Act and realized how broad the censorship powers are there. Has anyone else dug into why certain countries have such different thresholds for what counts as 'harmful' content?

16

thompson.robin•8d ago

Shoutout to that meme about the 2019 Indian flag colors that got pulled in 30 minutes

I stumbled on a trick that actually worked for sharing a banned meme without getting flagged. The problem was that a political meme I posted last year kept getting removed for ‘misinformation’ even though it was just a joke. I tried reposting it with the same wording but flipped the image colors to cyan and magenta, and it stayed up for 2 weeks before anyone noticed. Has anyone else found a weird loophole like this for keeping a controversial meme alive?

25

patwest•9d ago

Found a banned meme about polling stations outside my old voting spot in Ohio

Stopped by my old polling place in Columbus last week and spotted a meme taped to a lamppost that got the creator banned from Facebook - it showed a simple comparison of wait times between two precincts. Anyone else noticed real censorship hitting local election humor way harder than the big political stuff?

4

clark.iris•10d ago

Warning: I saw the Texas abortion memes disappear from Instagram in under 4 hours

I reposted that 'My Body My Choice' meme with the coat hanger graphic last Tuesday and it got flagged within 20 minutes. By the time I checked my friends' feeds, all similar posts were gone. Has anyone else tracked how fast these bans happen now versus two years ago?

7

richardknight•10d ago

TIL the "Keep Calm and Carry On" meme got banned on Facebook for being too political in 2019

Facebook removed it during the UK election claiming it violated their ad policies about campaign material. I still think a WWII era slogan that's been a joke for years is way less dangerous than letting candidates run unopposed with no satire allowed.

20

hannah_williams•10d ago

Showerthought: That time I had to pick between sharing a banned meme or keeping my forum account

I was on this politics forum last month and got a notification that a meme I shared about a local protest got flagged. The mod gave me a choice: take down the meme or lose my account that I'd had for like 5 years. The meme wasn't even that wild, just showed a cop taking a selfie while people were yelling behind him. I ended up deleting it because I had too many saved convos and contacts on that account. Felt kinda dirty though, like I let someone else decide what I can laugh at. Now I wonder how many other people make that same choice every day just to stay in the club. Has anyone else had to pick between a meme and your online presence like that?

17

blair_allen•12d ago

Visited the Fayetteville library and saw a whole shelf of banned books covered in sticky notes

I was in Fayetteville, Arkansas last weekend for a wedding and stopped by the public library. There was this display called "Freedom to Read" with maybe 30 books that have been challenged or banned in the U.S. in the last few years. People had written on sticky notes why they liked each book. Some notes were super passionate, like "This book saved my life" or "My kids loved this and they turned out fine." It got me thinking about which memes would end up on a similar shelf if they were physical objects. I snapped a few photos of the display but didn't post them yet. Anyone else seen something like this in their local library?

7

aaron_ellis42•12d ago

Got a 30 day ban from Reddit for posting a Pepe meme about election integrity

Last October I shared a modified Pepe meme that basically pointed out how different countries have different rules for mail-in voting. The mods said it was 'misinformation' but I literally just copy-pasted text from a BBC article about Sweden's system. Their removal reason cited 'harmful content' but it was just a frog with a ballot box. Has anyone else run into vague takedown rules that feel more about the platform's opinion than actual policy?

14

ericp67•13d ago

Got a 3 day Facebook ban for posting a cartoon about copyright laws

I was sitting at my desk in Albuquerque last Thursday, scrolling through my feed, and I shared this stupid little cartoon about how copyright laws kill free speech. It was a simple drawing of a guy getting silenced for quoting a movie. Facebook flagged it as 'hate speech' somehow. I appealed it, nothing happened. Three days locked out. What's the line between moderation and just outright censorship here anymore?

-1

reese86•14d ago

My uncle Bob changed my mind about political memes yesterday

He showed me a banned meme about the border wall and asked why I was so quick to share stuff without checking if it was even real first. He's a retired cop from Tucson, so has anyone else had a family member make you question what you're actually adding to the conversation?

4

aaron677•16d ago

Unpopular opinion: That "offensive" cat meme getting yanked from Twitter was just about a bad joke, not free speech

I got into it with a mod in a meme sharing group last week. They banned a post of mine showing a cat with a caption that poked fun at a news blunder. Took me nearly 3 hours to argue my case and get it back up. The mod kept saying it was "harmful," but honestly, it was just lame humor that nobody would've cared about 10 years ago. What's the line for you between a dumb meme and crossing a real boundary?

4

aaron896•16d ago

That time I laughed at cloud servers and ate my words

Back in 2014 my buddy kept pushing me to move our small business inventory system to some cloud server. I told him there's no way I'm trusting something I cant touch or see, sounded like a scam. Then our on-site server crashed during peak season and we lost three days of shipping data. He had a backup running on AWS the whole time and I felt like an idiot. Has anyone else had a moment where something you swore was fake actually saved the day?

8

brookerobinson•16d ago

Remember when Reddit banned all those subs overnight back in 2015?

That whole week felt like the internet was on fire. I was part of a small gaming sub that got caught in the crossfire even though we never broke any rules. The mods had to beg admins for three days to get reinstated. I still wonder how many communities just vanished for good without anyone noticing. Anyone else lose a favorite sub back then?

19

hannaht29•17d ago

Shoutout to the mod who pointed out my meme violated rule 3 before it got flagged

I posted a meme about the 2020 election audit in Arizona on a big subreddit last March. It was just a simple image comparing ballot counts, nothing offensive. The mod messaged me saying it broke their manipulated media policy, so I looked it up and realized any screenshot of a news article with editing could get you banned. That rule is so broad it could catch almost anything political these days. Has anyone else run into a similar vague policy that killed their post?

19

the_riley•19d ago

Found a way to track deleted reddit threads before they vanish

I kept seeing memes get yanked from political subs minutes after posting, so I started using removeddit with a browser extension. You just swap the 'reddit' in the URL to 'removeddit' and it shows the original content plus mod actions. Caught a screenshot of a UK election meme that got nuked in under 10 minutes last Tuesday. Anyone else use archive tools to keep receipts on deleted stuff?

20

ryang65•19d ago

Got a copyright strike for a meme I made about a city council meeting in Austin

Last Thursday I posted a silly edit of a local politician's face onto a cat and within 4 hours YouTube took it down. They said it violated their policy on harassment but it was literally just a joke about how slow they move on fixing potholes. I filed a counter claim but who knows if that will go anywhere. Has anyone else had a harmless local meme get flagged by the automated bots?

17

riverhill•20d ago

PSA: My neighbor got a cease and desist for a cartoon about the mayor

Back in 2019 this older guy on Maple Street drew a funny cartoon of our small town mayor sitting on a pile of cash. Local paper wouldn't print it so he posted it on Facebook and got a lawyer letter within 48 hours. Makes me wonder how many regular people get silenced before they even realize they broke an invisible rule.

13

cameron684•24d ago

Showerthought: Found out from a former mod that Reddit bans memes faster on weekdays than weekends

I was chatting with this guy on Discord last Thursday who used to moderate for a big subreddit. He told me the moderation team actually has a schedule where they clear out banned memes way more strictly Monday through Friday. Like they have quotas or something. He showed me an old spreadsheet they used to track how many posts they removed per day. The stats were wild - weekends had like 40% less enforcement. Made me wonder if the whole free speech thing is just about timing. Has anyone else noticed certain memes popping up more on Saturdays?