Just realized how different banned memes looked in 2016 vs 2024

I was digging through an old hard drive from 8 years ago and found meme folders from when I was active on r/The_Donald. Back then the banned stuff was mostly Pepe the Frog edits and outright racist cartoons. Fast forward to last week, I saw a mod on a UK politics forum ban a meme that was just a screenshot of a Guardian headline with a sarcastic caption. The whole bar for what counts as hateful changed. Which side do you think shifted more, the platforms or the people making the memes?

2 comments

2 Comments

blair_allen20d ago

Platforms moved the goalposts to control the narrative without saying it.

johnthompson20d ago

Depends on the platform honestly. Twitter/X has been a free for all for years with barely any moderation, while Facebook and Instagram have been tightening rules constantly. Feels less like a unified goalpost move and more like each site reacting to whatever pressure they're under that week. The real issue is they all hide behind "community guidelines" that change whenever it's convenient for them.