I used to forward every banned meme I saw, now I just screenshot the takedown notice
About two years ago I had a folder on my phone called 'saves' with like 140 memes I grabbed off Twitter and Reddit before they got deleted. I thought I was doing some kind of important archiving work, like a digital librarian of the resistance or whatever. Then a guy I know in Berlin got a letter from a lawyer over resharing one dumb meme about a politician, and it cost him 1,800 euros to make it go away. Now when I see something getting pulled, I just screenshot the 'this post is unavailable' page and the mod message, because the notice tells you way more about who is doing the banning and why than the joke ever did. Has anyone else switched to saving the paperwork instead of the meme itself, or am I just getting old and scared?
Watching people start keeping records instead of the thing itself is a pattern I keep running into everywhere now. My neighbor takes photos of her receipt before she mails the rebate form, my brother screenshots his work emails before he replies to them, and my aunt prints out her bank statements every month even though she could just look online. It's not hoarding, it's self defense. Somewhere along the way we all figured out that the proof matters more than the thing, because the thing can get taken away or twisted and the proof is what saves you. So no, you're not just old and scared, you're paying attention. It's a little sad that this is where we're at, but it beats a lawyer bill.