Political internet memes and liberal democracy : extreme memes to mainstream

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Political Internet Memes and Liberal Democracy

extreme memes to mainstream

Name student: Bob Hamelers Student number: 11055901

Master Thesis Political Science: International Relations

Course: A global crisis of democracies? Change and continuity in 21st_{century politics}

Teachers and Supervisors: mr. dr. A. (Armèn) Hakhverdian mrs. dr. C.M. (Conny) Roggeband Wordcount: 23837 Date: 24-06-2019 University:

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List of Figures, Tables and Memes

Memes almost never have a source, since meme creators often want to remain anonymous

themselves, are redistributed without reference to the original creator and memes process material from others into something new, without referring to the original source before it became a meme. The source is therefore not mentioned in memes. Meme + number can also be a group of memes.

- Figure 1 Humorous Illustration about Democracy and Social Media (Crowe 2017) - Figure 2 The Liberalism-Democracy Matrix (Mounk 2018: 59)

- Figure 3 Surface, Deep and Dark Web (Source: Unknown, Retrieved from:

http://pm1.narvii.com/6898/b265a227615bb31bd274be321c4282b9e846e2a8r1-310-279v2_uhq.jpg)

- Figure 4 Prompt Questions for Discursively Analysing Online Memes (Knobel and Lankshear 2007: 207)

- Figure 5 Quality Criteria Thematic Analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006: 95-96) - Figure 6 Social Dimension of Visual Research (Used to Orientate) (Spencer 2010)

- Table 1 Hashtag Search Strings and Number of Hits

- Meme 1 Democracy and Benjamin Franklin

- Meme 2 Two memes that are Dank (because of colour etc.) and Edgy (because of Hitler and Terroristic Attack 9/11)

- Meme 3 Two memes that show what Memers think about Normies - Meme 4 Low Profile Authoritarian Comparison Nazi Meme

- Meme 5 Two memes about The Boy in the Striped Pyjama - Meme 6 Two example memes about other Movies

- Meme 7 Ten example memes about Child Animations (Cartoons) and Authoritarian Comparisons

- Meme 8 Fourteen memes about Child Games/Toys and Authoritarian Comparisons. Also two memes about Valentine and Authoritarian Comparisons ‘to show the love of dictators’ - Meme 9 Two memes, one about Anne Frank that has humorous comments and one about

Hitler and dark humor memes that has comments of "Sieg Heil"

- Meme 10 Six example nonmemes about Imitating Attitude of Authoritarian Comparisons, like a (schoolbook) drawing

- Meme 11 Four example nonmemes about Happy Birthday for Authoritarian Dictators or Leaders

- Meme 12 Three polls (memes) that are posted in Instagram stories

- Meme 13 Three example memes about everyday life (such as taking a test at school or Christmas) with an Authoritarian Comparison. This shows the Normalisation or Habituation of Authoritarian Comparisons

- Meme 14 Political National Socialist nonmeme that has hashtags for people who want to see edgy memes

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- Meme 15 A political meme. Here a clear position is taken and a communist (Lenin) viewpoint is shown (Marxist analysis as is also described in the meme) with regard to Liberal

Democracy.

- Meme 16 One the next page there are six political memes. The left above meme is about a voting guide where the NSDAP an serious outcome is. The right above is a meme that has criticism on the Dutch National Broadcast. The other memes are about left and right parties in the Netherland and their leaders in Comparison with Authoritarianism.

- Meme 17 Two memes with criticism on the introduction of Liberal Democracy - Meme 18 Five memes that criticise Liberal Democracy

- Meme 19 Political Memes that focus on the Actors within a Political System like Liberal Democracy

- Meme 20 Pro Liberal Democracy Meme 1 (College Liberal and Conservative Student) - Meme 21 Three other example memes with the same Format (College Liberal) - Meme 22 Pro Liberal Democracy Meme 2 (Winston Churchill)

- Meme 23 Specific Target Group Meme that attacks Christians - Meme 24 Five example memes about Religions and Terrorism

- Meme 25 Two example memes that criticise Feminism and Women Rights

- Meme 26 Example Dawson Creek meme that shows a White Man crying. It is used to silence White Man.

- Meme 27 Two example memes that criticise the Right of the LGBT-community

- Meme 28 Four Specific Target Group memes about the same format (iconic picture of Rising the Flag on Iwo Jima). They can be pro- or against a movement.

- Meme 29 Four example memes about Ethnicity and Race

- Meme 30 Two example memes that criticise lower Education Levels - Meme 31 Meme from Normie to Edgy PH Scale

- Meme 32 Two memes about Youth (Teens) radicalising

- Meme 33 Two memes about deleting history knowledge to be able to see memes and about edgy 12 years olds that like to see memes about political ideologies that have killed millions in the past. To say it different, laughing is more important nowadays than historical

knowledge.

- Meme 34 Four example memes about blocking content by Instagram

- Meme 35 Hate meme against people (normies) who find that memes about history or politics should be reported. Posted on the (probably) biggest Dutch meme account in the Netherlands (more than 150.000 followers).

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Figure 1 Humorous Illustration about Democracy and Social Media (Crowe 2017)

Abstract

In recent years there have been indications for a less democratic attitude among citizens in countries where liberal democracy was considered to be consolidated. In this thesis the role of the internet and the introduction of social media on this deconsolidation of liberal democracy are investigated. More specifically, internet memes and political content are subject of my research.

Internet memes were simple humorous and easy to understand pictures and recognisable for everyone (like a cartoon). Over time memes radicalised with sometimes very aggressive, deterrent and discriminatory pictures and started to be (mis)used to the distribute a subjective political message.

The main research question is: “How contemporary internet culture makes sense of the internet tensions between liberal democratic consolidation?” From this research it becomes clear how the mechanisms of memes work and how the mechanism entails possibilities to become political. As a conclusion, it is hypothesized that memes have the ability to influence political opinion.

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Definitions

These definitions are copied from the content of this thesis.

Account

A name or also a place (house) on the internet. On a social media account a user can post messages (text, image, audio, video) or communicate with other accounts.

Dank Memes or Spicy Memes

The term Dank (cool) is used to describe exaggerated humour that is so absurd and

aggressive that it can lead to irony and laughter. Dank memes often contain frustrating visual or audio artefacts such as very poor image quality, colour bleeding or extremely saturated and modulated colours, patterns that indicate the image has been compressed and decompressed extensively, feedback, noise or extremely loud and unpleasant audio (Urban Dictionary 2019). A more specific form of dank memes are spicy memes, in-group jokes, which can only be understood by members of the account or the online community and are used until it is no longer funny, or even cliché (ibid.).

Dark Web

This web (and the sites and pages on the web) is not found on normal internet browsers. For this you need a special browser (for example the TOR browser). These webpages often contain items that are prohibited by law and are used to trade or to share illegally obtained material or to spread prohibited ideas. This is around 6 percent of the internet. The darknet ('dark web') is strictly separated. IP-addresses (computer ID) are not visible so that anonymity is guaranteed.

Deep Web

This web contains all internet pages that are not (publicly) visible to everyone and cannot be found through search engines. These are all redirected webpages where login is often

required and where the information is locked. These pages can only be reached if a computer (person) has the correct URL link (webpage) and the correct login codes. This is around 90 percent of the internet. Examples are all kinds of medical, financial, academic documents that are organization-specific or from government institutions. On social media you can, for example, send someone a private message ('deep web link') but also share something in public ('surface web link').

Edgy Memes

Edgy is synonymous to positive words (such as nice, funny, fantastic) it is used to spur things, behaviours or trends that are provocative and that are dark in nature (Urban Dictionary 2019). Most of the time, these edgy memes are offensive to individuals or to a certain group. Coarseness serves as a degree of "coolness". Extremes are used to reach coarseness as much as possible. The aim of edgy memes is to stimulate and realize full freedom of expression, even if this opinion is offensive or discriminatory.

In-group and Out-group

An in-group is a social group with which an individual psychologically identifies and an out-group is a social out-group with which an individual does not psychologically identify (Tajfel 1970) Instagram

Instagram is a company that is part of the Facebook company and is a free social media platform where users can share photos, videos, or messages with each other.

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9 Mainstream

Ordinary, everyday, used by a wide audience with different political beliefs and different backgrounds.

Meme (internet meme)

A comical or funny digital file (text, image, audio, video) that (whether or not in imitated or adapted form) is massively shared and copied on the internet and is spreading rapidly. A meme may want to convey a certain message, in addition to humour, but this is not necessary.

Normie

A normie is someone who does not "understand" the internet. It refers to persons who support popular public culture (the ‘normal’ society they live in) on mainstream social media. The term normie has the connotation of conventional, boring and mainstream. More specific in the internet culture is a normie someone who has no knowledge about memes or someone who cannot keep up with what's currently funny or popular within the meme culture. Normies often become triggered of offensive edgy memes and will then spam or report these memes. That is why the normie is abhorred within the meme culture. A normie is also a word to insult and silence someone. A definition remains difficult. As a memer said: "Defining normie is in itself quite normie".

Offline

Not available on the internet. Online

Present on the internet. This can be a person but also an ideology, product (etc.). Posting (verb)

Put something on the internet, put something online; think of posting a meme on an account. Slacktivism

Easy participation (activism) to politics on social media at low effort Social Media

Websites (digital environments) that allow people to build a network of contacts. Instagram is an example of such a platform.

Surface Web

This is the normal web. These are all websites and webpages that can be found on normal browsers such as Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge. This is around 4 percent of the internet. On social media you can, for example, send someone a private message ('deep web link') but also share something in public ('surface web link').

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1 Preface

My current work next to my studies consists of coaching high school students in (homework) classes, exam training, spring or summer schools. As a teacher I experienced the importance of memes for young students. Since I myself have been watching memes since high school, I could almost fully experience the rise of memes. I noticed that these memes became more and more radical and that dark humour normalized. In recent years many memes have also become increasingly political, which made me wonder how this works and what possible influences it could have on the political

socialization of young people. It turned out that hardly anything had been written about it, and that (this) investigation could be very useful in closing this gap.

As a master student in political science and history I am interested in an analysis of (de-)consolidation of liberal democracy in relation to internet culture. My earlier research on issues such as ethics, political psychology, radicalization, extremism and young people and my background in computer science and understanding of algorithms enables me to perform the current research.

Yet it was not possible to successfully complete this master thesis without help. At first, I want to thank my supervisor dr. A. (Armèn) Hakhverdian very much for all his time and effort for helping me in writing this thesis. He has extensively analysed and reviewed my documents and made time to provide valuable feedback. This greatly contributed to the readability and structure of this research and has substantively strengthened the contents. He has also provided additional material and has given extensive lectures to become familiar with literature.

A second person I want to thank is dr. C.M. (Conny) Roggeband. She helped me getting started with the method section. She provided me with the necessary sources which were incredibly useful for building my method section. I want to thank her for this, but also as an esteemed second reader. PhD student Laura Mulder was willing to make an appointment with me to help me get started with the study of democratic consolidation among young people, but she also sent sources and her own research material to give my thesis a solid basis. I owed this contact to dr. Hakhverdian.

Finally, I want to thank my social environment for their adaptability. The flexibility with which my colleagues did take over my duties, which enabled me to write my thesis, was of great help. The support from them and from my friends and family was also of great value to me.

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2 Introduction

In recent years there have been phenomena that indicate a less democratic attitude among citizens in countries where democracy was considered to be consolidated (Keleman 2017). Francis Fukuyama spoke in the "The End of History and the Last Man" that after the Cold War there would be an end to ideological evolution and that liberal democracy would prevail everywhere (Fukuyama 1992). The opposite, however, proved true. Precisely in countries where liberal democracy seemed

consolidated, populist parties arose that were less benevolent towards the liberal side of this liberal democracy (Enyedi 2016; Keleman and Blauberger 2017).

When Fukuyama expressed his theory about prevalence of liberal democracy , the internet was still in its infancy and virtually absent in European households. Since then the availability and importance of internet evolved tremendously. Internet became a strong communication platform with specific subcultures with their own cultural identity.

A specific sort of communication is formed by memes. Initially memes were simple humorous and easy to understand pictures and recognisable for everyone (like a cartoon). However, over time memes evolved into pictures with a distinct meaning and (political) message. The role of memes on internet in relation to deconsolidation of liberal democracy will be investigated in this thesis.

2.1 Social and Scientific Relevance

In order to be able to investigate whether the trend of de-democratization will continue in the future, it is important to look into the extent to which people have norms that are compatible with liberal democracy. Political socialization of young people nowadays takes place to a considerable extent via the internet (Kranendonk et al. 2018: 38-39). That differentiates the relevant group from previous generations (Lenhart 2015; Perrin 2015; Kahne and Bowyer 2018: 470).

Several studies indicate the influence of social media on the political opinion of individuals (Kranendonk et al. 2018: 38-39). For example, Feenberg argues that the internet has definitely contributed to democracy by enabling deliberative debate, by coming into contact with dissidents and giving the opportunity to be critical of undemocratic governments. In addition, Gayo-Avello states that social media could be used as a tool to promote democratization. However, scientists are increasingly questioning this pax technica (Howard 2015; O’Maley 2016; Ess 2018; Coleman 2017; Crilley and Gillespie 2019; McChesney 2013). On the internet, unlike deliberative debate and coming into contact with people who dissent, echo chambers can also arise where everyone starts to talk to each other and to believe more strongly in what they already thought, a so-called bubble effect (Flaxman, Goel and Rao 2016; Bozdag and Van den Hoven 2015; Geeraerts 2012: 25-26; Kahne et al. 2011; Hong and Kim 2016). Hannan argues that social media on the internet "turned into a global schoolyard, without any teachers to uphold rules or to put bullies in their place". That is why researchers have also focused on the role of social media in political socialization (for example: Kranendonk et al. 2018; Austin & Nelson, 1993; Chaffee, Ward, & Tipton, 1970; Thorson, Xu, & Edgerly, 2018). An important emerging trend within these mainstream social media are memes and these are becoming more and more political. Not only have memes been little described, but certainly not much has been done about their political nature. This thesis seeks to change that. This trend, that the internet has an influence on political education and the formation of opinions (political socialization), has become even more important, since recent radical memes (‘funny’

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images or videos on the internet) become mainstream on social media sites that young people often visit (Zittrain 2014). Although many radical memes have been on subcultures for a long time, until now, they were not found on mainstream social media channels.

Before it is possible to investigate the influence of memes on the political socialization of people, it first must become clear how (il)liberal these memes are and to what extent equality and freedom of expression (speech), two main pillars of liberal democracy, are under attack by these memes. Viewing and analysing memes on mainstream social media is more interesting for measuring liberal democratic consolidation than analysing niche websites, since mainstream social media are a better reflection of society.

Scientific research into these memes with a focus on liberal democratic consolidation is lacking. Moreover, it has only scarcely been investigated to what extent memes relate to liberal democracy. It is therefore of utmost relevance to investigate this scientific gap. The word normie is almost never defined and words such as edgy memes are virtually unknown in scientific search engines. This gap needs to be closed, since this black hole in science and journalism about the internet culture with memes means that people do not know to what extent these memes are dangerous and possibly undermine societies. It is of social importance and relevance to do research on this, since it could have a big impact on our way of life and on our political systems worldwide.

2.2 Research Question

The research objective of this study is to be able to increase our understanding of how memes relate to and influence liberal democracy. In this master thesis I therefore want to find an answer to the following main research question: “How contemporary internet culture makes sense of the internet tensions between liberal democratic consolidation?”

To this end, two concepts will be conceptualized, namely liberal democratic consolidation and contemporary internet culture (chapter 3). This chapter will continue with the conceptualization of memes. Chapter 4 will focus on methods used to collect and analyse data. Data collection is done via theoretic sampling on popular Instagram accounts and through hashtag search on Instagram. For the analysing part an analysing method of Knobel and Lankshear is used, that focusses on the meaning of a meme, the social relations and contextual situation that the meme reflects and the ideological worldview (values and beliefs) that a meme(creator) or viewer supports or downsizes (Knobel and Lankshear 2007). In chapter 5 a thorough analysis of memes will be made and several examples will be shown. Results will be concluded and discussed in Chapter 6 and 7.

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3 Theory and Conceptualization

3.1 Liberal Democratic Consolidation

3.1.1 Consolidation

To understand consolidation, public support must be understood. If there is a high consolidation, then this leads to a high public support for a certain political system (Welzel 2007; Welzel et al. 2003, Ingelhart and Welzel 2005). Public support is the visible expression of consolidation (what someone thinks and finds). Easton states that public support has two types. First, specific political actors can be supported, who are holding government offices (Easton 1965; Kotzian 2010: 23-24). Secondly, one can have a more diffuse support with regard to the "political system" (ibid.). An example of such a political system is a liberal democracy. In this research the focus is on this diffuse support.

There is a lot of debate in science to what extent public support actually influences the political system. Inglehart and Welzel show that public support for a political system is essential for its continued existence (Welzel 2007; Welzel et al. 2003, Ingelhart and Welzel 2005). Welzel specifies that people are willing to defend a liberal democracy when it is challenged as long as public support is high (Welzel 2007: 397, 419-420). Also Rose and Shin show the importance of public support and argue that a country will find it difficult to democratize when it is not a liberal democracy and will likely backslide democratically when public support is missing (Rose and Shin 2001).

On the contrary, Hadenius and Teorell demonstrate that public support does not influence

democratic development, in both downward or upward way. They investigated to what extent there is a causal link between the degree of public support for a liberal democracy and the extent to which democracy as a political system changes over ten years (Hadenius and Teorell 2005: 96-98). Inglehart does not agree with their conclusions because he states that they used the incorrect dependency variables and a limited timeframe to measure the influence of public support on liberal democracy (Inglehart 1997: 202; Hadenius and Teorell 2005: 98; Kotzian 2010: 23-24).

An important reason for this incongruity is that there is a discrepancy among scientists about what is meant by a liberal democracy and consolidation (or public support) (Friedman 2019: 30). As a researcher, I am not trying to resolve this debate within this paper, but it is important that this research positions itself in these debates about consolidation and liberal democracy before it can be understood and described what is happening in today's internet culture with regard to liberal democratic consolidation.

Public support is the visible expression of consolidation aimed at a political system that is institutionalized to a certain extent. Mainwarring and Torcal (2006) define institutionalization as follows: "institutionalization refers to a process by which an organization is well established and widely known." (Mainwarring and Torcal 2006: 206). They further describe that: "Actors develop expectations and behaviour based on the premise that this organization will prevail into the foreseeable future. In politics, institutionalization means that political actors have clear and stable expectations about the behaviour of other actors." (Mainwarring and Torcal 2006: 206;

Kumbaracıbaşı 2018: 7-10; Mainwarring, O'Donnell and Valenzuela 1992). O 'Donnell adds that there is only institutionalization "when the rules which underpin them are widely shared and deeply rooted" (O' Donnell 1996: 40; Friedman 2019: 30). Taken together that means that individuals have clear and stable expectations with regard to the political system. That is nice in principle, since

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citizens can expect certain things from the political system (like education, healthcare or protection) and from other citizens (for example, that they do not commit a crime) and citizens have certain rights (like voting right) and duties (like paying taxes) that ensure stability.

If a political system is institutionalized, citizens can agree or can disagree with this

institutionalization. This opinion will lead to (de)consolidation. This consolidation (idea and opinion towards the institutionalization of a political system) can become visible through public support. With public support, people can actively promote/consolidate the system (by becoming part of the system, such as becoming parliament member) or people can actively resist/deconsolidate the system (for example, by carrying out a coup or rioting). When there is full consolidation with regard to the institutionalization of a political system, a political system becomes 'undisputed'.

Yet there is much debate about when a population is consolidated against a political system and how that should be measured. Linz and Stepan argue that there is consolidation when "none of the major political actors consider that there is any alternative to democratic processes for gain power" and Przeworski states that there is consolidation when "no one can imagine acting outside democratic institutions" (Linz and Stepan 1996; Linz 1990: 156; Przeworski 1991: 26; Friedman 2019: 29; Bratton and Mattes 1992). Friedman is critical of these conceptualizations of consolidation. Friedman: "If only elite attitudes matter, formal democracy may endure even if most citizens have doubts about its worth, particularly if the doubters are not strong enough to act on their misgivings. By contrast, an understanding of democracy's survival prospects which insists on citizens' recognition of its necessity would require far greater social consensus on democracy's merits and would make 'consolidation' the product of a lengthier and more complex process than would an acceptance by elites that they have no other options. Who must see democracy as 'the only game in town' is, therefore, a fundamental question." (Friedman 2019: 30). Although the quote is quite complicated here, Friedman describes that it makes a big difference to whom (which group of people) the political system must be consolidated. Must everyone be consolidated or only a certain powerful group of people. He does not answer this question and concludes that consolidation as paradigm is inadequate.

Another reason that Friedman finds consolidation inadequate as paradigm is because it assumes a final stage, or as he calls it, a "finished product" (Friedman 2019: 27). In other words, he states here that it is not possible to be consolidated (fully satisfied with a political system).

Mattes and Bratton state that "A consolidated democracy is one in which arrangements develop into permanent, consistent and autonomous institutions governed by justiciable rules." (Mattes and Bratton 2007: 192; Friedman 2019: 32). Friedman again is also critical of this. The problem according to Friedman is that this has made it impossible to measure what exactly 'justiciable rules' are. Moreover, this can also be seen as a conceptualization of institutionalization.

Svolik argues that deconsolidation can be seen on the basis of 'democratic breakdowns' (like a military coup) that in the past indicated that a democracy would decay rapidly (Svolik 2015). According to Friedman, also this definition of consolidation is inadequate because it says nothing about deconsolidation in the future and only something about the past (idem: 32-33).

So, according to Friedman, 'liberal democracy' should not be an end point in itself. Friedman

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as deepened, but is not a threshold that once reached will guarantee its continued existence” (Mouffe 1993: 6; Friedman 2019: 34).

Consolidation is therefore an inadequate term according to Friedman. That is why he makes the choice to introduce a new term, namely democratic quality, devised by Diamond and Morlino in 2005, whereby a country is more or less democratic, but where an end stage of liberal democracy is never achieved (Diamond and Morlino 2005: ix-xiv; Fukuyama 1992). This is essential as it is clear that on the internet 'promotional material' can be found for other political systems and that democracy is not the 'only game in town' (Friedman 2019: 27-30). Consolidation occurs on the internet not only with regard to liberal democracy but also with regard to authoritarian systems or illiberal democracies. The earlier consolidation definitions of Linz/Stepan and Przeworski are therefore not usable.

The definitions of Mattes and Bratton are also not useful for analysing the attitude towards liberal democracy, because they focus on system changes that will not easily take place as a causal

consequence of some memes on the internet. After all, the opinion (consolidation) about a political system can change, without the institutions of that political system changing.

Friedman's arguments argue for the use of democratic quality instead of consolidation, yet this research uses consolidation. This research examines not so much to what extent a country is

democratic in memes but what democratic attitude among citizens can be found in memes and how democratic these citizens behave by posting memes. Consolidation is therefore more applicable than democratic quality, since democratic quality focuses on a country or system.

On the other hand, the gradually definition proposed by Friedman with 'democratic quality', in contrast to the dichotomy, is of great value. This is because it gives scope to see to what extent certain elements of a political system are consolidated among individuals, instead of black and white analysis. An individual or population is consolidated to a certain extent with regard to the political system and not simply consolidated or unconsolidated. So, in this study the concept of consolidation is not dichotomous, but gradual (Hadenius and Teorell 2005: 91; Rooduijn 2013: 8), because there are different degrees (a certain level) of consolidation with regard to a political system.

In this thesis consolidation is conceptualized as follows: “Consolidation is the acceptance-attitude of individuals of the institutionalization of a specific political system”. The acceptance-attitude ensures stability in a country. As long as there is consolidation for a certain political system, this will remain institutionalized. If, on the other hand, a political system is no longer consolidated (accepted) to a certain extent among a certain group of individuals, the institutionalization of the political system in question can be weakened and may finally disappear.

This consolidation can be expressed through diffuse political support (on the internet for example). Variables (economic prosperity for example) that affect this support are endless and are not covered in this document. Diffuse political support is important as it makes a political system resilient to crises (Chu et al. 2008).

3.1.2 Liberal Democracy

A liberal democracy consists of two elements, namely the political part 'democracy' and the political ideology 'liberalism'. Much has been written about both concepts. It goes too far to deal with both

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concepts in detail and to give a complete overview of what a 'liberal democracy' is. It is, however, important to describe which criteria are used in this study to be able to interpret the consolidation with regard to liberal democracy, while this can be defined in many ways.

The democratic element is based primarily on the ability of citizens to vote (active) and to stand for elections (passive), with control over the political agenda (Dahl 1998 (2015): 38). The basis for this idea lies in the fact that everyone is born equal, as is also described in the Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR 2014: article 1). So everyone has an equal influence on the decisions and there must be equality between citizens in order to act democratically (Dahl 1998 (2015): 38). To maintain this equality, elections must be free and fair and everyone must also be free, for example, to form an opinion, to participate politically or to vote.

Rhoden elaborates on this by saying that "democratic consolidation does not guarantee liberal consolidation." (Rhoden 2015: 560). According to Rhoden, Montesqieu and Madison only democracy is no more than a form of despotism because the voting behaviour of the 'demos' can still result in authoritarian administration (idem: 564). The majority of votes can, after all, suppress the minority by choosing an illiberal or authoritarian leader. Pabst describes that this "democratic despotism" could result in, as Tocqueville conceptualized, "voluntary servitude" (Pabst 2016: 91). Rhoden therefore criticizes Dahl's conceptualization of democracy and liberalism together (as a polyarchy), while Dahl denies that there are also democracies that are not liberal (idem: 566-568). Rhoden shows that there are democracies without liberal consolidation, such as Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Peru and Thailand (idem: 563-565). Rhoden concludes his journal by stating that there is both democratic consolidation and liberal consolidation (idem: 573-574). This split is also essential for this research. Mounk elaborated this interesting contradiction between liberalism and democracy in his book "The people vs. democracy" and comes with the following matrix (Mounk 2018: 59.).

Figure 2 The Liberalism-Democracy Matrix (Mounk 2018: 59)

Glasius further specifies the difference between authoritarianism and illiberalism. First, she argues that it is useful to look at “practices” as an analysis unit instead of a political system (such as liberal democracy) as an object of analysis or an individual (such as President Trump) as an object of analysis (Glasius 2018: 517, 523-531). According to Schatzki, "a practice is a set of doings and sayings

organized by a pool of understandings, a set of rules" (Schatzki 2001: 61; Glasius 2018: 524). I will also look at this pool of understandings and a set of rules. Since it is not ‘literally’ performed in the

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political arena and as this research looks at this pool of understandings and set of rules on the internet, I will define practices on the internet as ‘mechanisms’.

Because of these practices, Glasius is able to explain the difference between authoritarian practices and illiberal practices. She states that “the difference lies in the type of harm effected: authoritarian practices primarily constitute a threat to democratic processes, while illiberal practices are primarily a human rights problem [...] Authoritarian practices at their core, are about accountability sabotage. [...] Fareed Zakaria, ‘Rise of illiberal democracy’, is analytically useful to identify illiberalism as a phenomenon distinct from authoritarianism. [...] An illiberal practice is as a pattern of actions, embedded in an organized context, infringing on the autonomy and dignity of the person. Belonging to the class of illiberal practices are patterns of interference with legal equality, [...or] infringement of freedom of expression.” (Glasisus 2018: 517, 529-530; Zakaria 1997: 26).

Different systems can be defined in the matrix of Mounk. In line with Rhoden, this study argues that liberalism is essential for democracies to be meaningful. Zakaria wrote already in 1997 that the greatest danger of an illiberal democracy is that it rejects liberal democracy (Zakaria 1997). That is why he suggested that liberalism always takes precedence over democracy, the so-called Whig approach (Hobson 2012: 441). Although he was strongly criticized at Hobson because, according to Hobson, Zakaria drew a too dichotomous line between liberal democracy and other political systems, many scientists argued that liberal rights are important for meaningful democracy (idem: 441, 443-445).

Because of these Whig approach, this study will also look at the extent to which there are liberal or illiberal expressions in contemporary internet culture. The liberal component of liberal democracy in this study consists of the two fundamental rights equality and freedom of expression (speech), as described by Rhoden and Alexis de Tocqueville.

Alexis de Tocqueville argued that freedom and equality are at odds with each other (De Tocqueville 1835). These must therefore be protected through human rights and by a so-called ‘rule of law’. So, to make a democracy meaningful, a second component is needed, based on the liberal side (Shepard 1935: 95-96).

So, liberal democratic consolidation means that citizens have a stable acceptance-attitude towards the institutionalization of liberal democracy, in which citizens take it for granted that citizens have equal rights (equality) and may express themselves (freedom of expression (speech)) in order to make democracy meaningful. The question in this study then becomes to what extent this consolidation becomes unstable due to contemporary memes as a part of internet culture. More specifically, it will be examined to what extent equality and freedom of expression (speech) are strengthened or weakened by contemporary internet culture.

A liberal democracy is often supported by a utilarist idea (Riley 1985; Mill 1859; Sievers 2010; Zuckert 2014; Botwinick 2012; Boyd 2001; Hebert 2007). Philanthropist Jon van Til argues that liberal

democracy (according to him consisting of freedom (liberty), equality (justice), fraternity (solidarity), the pursuit of happiness, pluralism (diversity), and human rights) is the desirable way forward in a time of globalization (geopolitics) to reach cosmopolitan canopies (Van Til 2015: 35). In his eyes, citizens should learn to deal with different identities and be open to other identities (idem: 46). To achieve that, liberal democracy is necessary according to Van Til, with interaction and discussion in

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all areas (idem: 49). Ceva and Zuolo add to this that "in a liberal democracy, majority-minority relations have normally been viewed as the main subject matter of toleration." (Ceva and Zuolo 2013: 239).

However, Van Til also acknowledges that not everyone finds liberal democracy the answer to contemporary geopolitics. Van Til: "Contemporary autocracies such as Orban's Hungary, Erdogan's Turkey, and Putin's Russia leave little room for ideas like deliberative democracy, citizen

participation, income redistribution, social diversity, or human rights. These governments, it would seem, act to hollow out democratic and pluralist institutions in order to create their own response to the challenges of contemporary geopolitics. "(Van Til 2015: 49; Offe 2011).

3.1.3 Backsliding Liberal Democracy

Ward stated in 2008 that theory suggested that liberal democracies should perform better than illiberal democracies, but that empirical evidence for this sustainability could not be provided (Ward 2008: 386, 405-406). Today, several scientists disagree with this, since the liberal component in particular is under pressure in several countries nowadays (Wike and Fetterolf 2018; Öniş 2017; Hawkins 2016). For example, Somer and Mccoy describe how different countries are becoming increasingly polarized and how that threatens democracy (Somer and Mccoy 2019: 8). Dominant groups are able to realize rule of the majority and democratic erosion has been a consequence (ibid.). Thomas describes in his book “The Authoritarian Temptation”, how the anti-liberal world order advances in many countries (Thomas 2018; Plattner 2017: 8-13). For example, Roggeband and Andrea demonstrate how policy progress on gender rights is reversed in Eastern Europe (Roggeband and Andrea 2018). Levitsky and Ziblatt state that four factors show that authoritarian behavior is taking place in many countries since the last years through the “rejection of (or weak commitment to) democratic rules of the game (1), denial of legitimacy or political opponents (2), toleration or encouragement of violence (3), or the readiness to curtail civil liberties or opponents, including media (4).” (Levitsky and Ziblatt 2018: 23-24). Dawson and Hanley specify this for European countries and shows how eastern European countries are now becoming increasingly illiberal (Dawson and Hanley 2016). Even the Hungarian prime minister Orban states that "Liberal Democracy Has Failed" (Lo Prete 2014).

An important social and scientific discussion focuses on the question of where this illiberal trend comes from. Some scientists state the illiberal reaction trend is a reaction on the rise of

undemocratic liberalism, like the European Union (Mounk 2018: 59). Other scientists find this only cause too simple. For example, Harteveld, Schaper, De Lange and Van der Brug show that

Euroscepticism arose when the refugee crisis on the media in Europe is generally discussed, but that individual liberal democratic countries were held responsible and accountable individually for the number of admissions of asylum applicants (Harteveld, Schaper, De Lange and Van der Brug 2018). So, democratic accountability is differentiated by citizens between different kinds of governments, whereby certainly not only an undemocratic liberal European Union can be described as the cause for the illiberal reaction (ibid.).

Many other possible causes for the backslide of liberal democracy were investigated. For example, Csergõ shows how “advocates of democratization and transnationalism” are subverting in liberal democracy (Csergõ 2018: 545). Next to this, Pappas states that the fighters of today’s democracy are also more diverse than in the past (Pappas 2016). Runciman emphasizes that this is not a reliving of

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the first half of the 20th century in Europe (Runciman 2018; Strunz, Bartkowski 2018). Rawnsley agrees with him and says about Runciman’s book “How Democracy Ends”, the following: “Some of the symptoms of democratic decay may seem familiar, but the disease is different. We make a potentially fatal mistake if we think history is just repeating itself. Gaze obsessively into the rear-view mirror and we won't see the true threats on the road ahead.” (Rawnsley 2018; Runciman 2018). Populism is often cited as an example for the illiberal wave (Mudde and Kaltwasser: 2012Galston 2018; Plattner 2010; Rensmann, De Lange and Couperus 2017). Populist undermine the separation of powers and combat some individual civil and human rights for a general will (Rensmann, De Lange and Couperus 2017: 106). On the other hand, some scientists do not see populists in contrast with liberal democracy and pose the question for the ongoing debate about populism: “Why are populist parties popular?” (Thompson 2017). After all, populists regularly ensure better electoral attendance and public participation improves (Rensmann, De Lange and Couperus 2017: 106)

3.1.4 Influence of Internet

Last but not least, Shiffrin wondered if the internet and the introduction of social media could possibly influence this liberal democratic decline (Schiffrin 2017: 117-118). Schiffrin shows that the internet did not improve democracy in the past years (Schiffrin 2017: 117). Moreover, the internet is not only no help, but can even threaten democracy (ibid.). The internet is also in the eyes of

Runciman one of the main culprits. It is said that “The internet, far from being the elixir of democratic accountability and engagement that utopians once imagined, has poisoned the well. Opposed sects promote conspiracy theories in their rival echo bubbles rather than engage in reasoned debate around an agreed set of facts (Flaxman, Goel and Rao 2016). Democracy has become more venomous - and toothless at the same time. Governments flounder in the face of disruption unleashed by the tech titans of Silicon Valley and subverters tilling the troll farms run out of the Kremlin.” (Rawnsley 2018; Runciman 2018). However, it remains with a diagnosis and no cure (ibid.).

Recently, numerous research shows the increasingly influential position of the internet in elections. For example, Dike demonstrates how the internet had a significant influence in Nigerian elections, Musso and Maccaferri demonstrate how the populist 5-star Movement in Italy could win through effective social media use, Ross and Rivers demonstrate how memes affected delegitimization of political candidates in the 2016 American elections and Mansfield-Devine adds how the internet was hacked to realize the Brexit referendum (Dike 2018; Musso and Maccaferri 2018; Ross and River 2017a; Mansfield-Devine 2018). As Persily puts it: “Can democracy survive the internet?” (Persily 2017).

3.2 Contemporary Internet Culture

3.2.1 The Internet

To understand contemporary internet culture it is essential to describe internet. The internet consists of three sensory transfers i.e. text, video and audio (Dancygier and Vandelanotte, 2017: 573).

Another division is the discrimination between fixed material or unfixed material that can be

changed by users. The disadvantage of a fixed website is that there is little or no interaction between visitors. Over the years, the internet has developed and unfixed social media have emerged. Anyone can create an account and post material (for example, video or audio clips and text) on such social media platforms.

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The internet can be subdivided in three parts. First of all, there is the normal web, also called 'surface web'. These are all websites and webpages that can be found on normal browsers such as Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge. This is around 4 percent of the internet. The next 90 percent is the so-called 'deep web'. Put simply, these are all internet pages that are not (publicly) visible to everyone and cannot be found through search engines. These are all redirected webpages where login is often required and where the information is locked. These pages can only be reached if a computer (person) has the correct URL link (webpage) and the correct login codes. Examples are all kinds of medical, financial, academic documents that are organization-specific or from government institutions. The last 6 percent is the so-called 'dark web'. This is not found on normal internet browsers. For this you need a special browser (for example the TOR browser). These webpages often contain items that are prohibited by law and are used to trade or to share illegally obtained material or to spread prohibited ideas.

The 'surface web' and 'deep web' are almost always connected. On social media you can, for example, send someone a private message ('deep web link') but also share something in public ('surface web link'). The darknet ('dark web') is strictly separated. IP-addresses (computer ID) are not visible so that anonymity is guaranteed. Where extremist material was initially only found on the "dark web", there is a shift towards the "surface web" (Zittrain 2014).

Figure 3 Surface, Deep and Dark Web (Source: Unknown, Retrieved from:

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3.2.2 Democracy and Internet

The influence of internet on liberal democracy is present, but the nature of influence is widely disputed. Feenberg argues that the internet has contributed to democracy (Feenberg 2017). He stated that the internet is a place where everyone is free to express themselves in numerous ways, both in opinion and in art, and is equal to have access to this new online community (ibid.). The internet was initially seen by more scientists as a "triumph of liberal democracy" (O’Maley 2016: 176; Pirannejad 2017). The internet can help improve dialogue and communication between people with different viewpoints. All different opinions can be found on the internet (Ebling 2017; Hong and Kim 2016).

Gayo-Avello argues that social media could be used both as a tool to promote democratization and that social media can act as a catalyst for feelings that play in society (Gayo-Avello 2005: 15 ). Both collective and connective action can take place on the internet. Collective identity induces a relationship and may arise through internet, while for connective identity there is no relation but only a network of individuals. In the latter case “participants do not see themselves as members of a group but as individuals that at a given time connect to other individuals to pursue some concrete objective.” (idem: 14).

Kwak et al. (2018) demonstrated that positive perceptions of social media indirectly increased offline political participation, through the influence of political expression on social media (Kwak et al. 2018: 197, 216-217). With this they confirm the 'slacktivism hypothesis', which states that easy

participation (activism) to politics on social media at low effort promotes political behaviour (ibid.). This holds not true for people with a diverse network or for young people (ibid). People with a diverse network do not run the risk of being absorbed in a bubble room. The absence of a connection between online and offline behaviour of young people cannot be explained at this moment in time. This research is a first exploration to gain insight into this phenomenon.

Although there is a lot of politics and different opinions on social media, social media does not contribute to more conventional or unconventional political participation than people who do not use social media (Gayo-Avello 2005: 12-13; Conroy, Feezell and Guerrero 2012 ; Schlozman, Verba and Brady 2010; Breindl and Francq 2008). The only difference is that young people do participate more politically through social media, but this mainly caused by so-called "slacktivism" (Gayo-Avello 2005: 12-13; Vitak et al. 2011). Social media is often used for the political campaigning of specific people, ideas or goals, but this is primarily a one-way communication (Gayo-Avello 2005: 13; Cogburn and Espinoza-Vasquez 2011; Lilleker and Jackson 2010). Social media are therefore not places for "blinked public democratic deliberation, but rather deliberation in public" (Gayo-Avello 2005: 11; Goodin 2000).

Nam could not demonstrate that the internet contributes significantly to the development of an electoral democracy (only voting right) into a liberal democracy (with liberal rights) (Nam 2017: 538; Rhue and Sundararajan 2014). However, Nam did show that censorship on the internet can prevent a country from becoming or remaining liberal (idem: 538).

The positive outlook, the "pax technica", of the "internet of things" raises more and more doubts (Howard 2015; O’Maley 2016; Ess 2018; Coleman 2017; Crilley and Gillespie 2019; McChesney 2013). The internet can create so-called 'bubble rooms' (echo-chambers) and thereby create an increased 'bubble effect' by only communicating with people who think like you because you visit pages and

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accounts that match your own world view (Flaxman, Goel and Rao 2016; Bozdag and Van den Hoven 2015; Geeraerts 2012: 25-26; Kahne et al. 2011; Hong and Kim 2016). According to Hong and Kim's research there are more echo chambers than cross-cutting interactions (Hong and Kim 2016). This may lead to polarization (ibid.). That is not strange, because citizens are more democratically

satisfied if they can identify themselves on the individual level with a politician based on identity and ideology (Hakhverdian and Schakel 2017; Mayne and Hakhverdian 2016: 1, 23-29). People are therefore likely to split up on the internet into echo chambers just as people are likely to split up in political parties in democratic parliaments.

Cushman shows that in countries where liberal democracy is self-evident, and where freedom of expression is high, countries start to limit freedom of expression. He argues that freedom of

expression is under pressure, as things are labeled offensive (Cushman 2016: 351). There is ongoing debate about what can and cannot be said (Tønder 2015; Sniderman, Petersen, Slothuus and Stubager 2014). Memes are also increasingly being deleted on Instagram because they would not be in line with the community guidelines (Constine 2019; Archer 2016; Mehta 2019; Instagram 2019; Rosen and Lyons 2019). ‘Fake’ News is also coming under pressure on Instagram and posts from politicians are also being removed (Woodford 2018; Newton 2019). But, why and how does Instagram determine what is fake and what is not? Facebook (with its subsidiary Instagram) has recently even started a special blog about social media and democracy (Harbath 2018). Since so many memes are deleted on a daily basis, there are even numerous memes about Instagram that have memes deleted (Know Your Meme 2016).

Hannan concludes in her research on social media and democracy: "In a discursive space unregulated by shared standards of truth, logic, evidence and civility - in effect, a kind of Wild West of

communication - trolling functions as a nuclear option, metaphorically speaking, for public discourse that all too often breaks down on political disagreements. While television might have turned politics into entertainment, social media have turned it into a global schoolyard, but one without any

teachers to uphold rules or to put bullies in their place " (Hannan 2018: 224). Taub adds that a focus on social media: "can go a long way not only in explaining proliferation of fake news but also the political tribalism currently tearing democratic societies apart at the seams" (Taub, 2017). The principle of Alexis de Tocqueville formulated in 1835, that freedom and equality are at odds with each other, is still valid (De Tocqueville 1835). However, obtaining a good balance between freedom and equality is not straightforward and remains under discussion.

3.3 Content of Internet Culture → Conceptualization of Memes

3.3.1 Memes: Definition

The Wild West of communication, or otherwise, the global schoolyard where Hannan writes about has led to a global internet culture. There are many options for expressing yourself on the internet. One of them are memes. Memes can be written, photo, video or audio material (Borzsei 2013). The word "meme" is introduced in 1976 in the book "The Selfish Gene" by Dawkins (Seiffert-Brockmann, Diehl and Dobusch 2018: 2863-2864; Dawkins 1976/1989: 368). He deduced this word from "gene". The aim of Dawkins was to use the word "meme" to reflect an evolution of culture and society based on the principles of Darwinian theory of evolution (ibid.). It is an abbreviation of the ancient Greek word: “mīmēma”, which means ‘imitated thing’ or ‘copied thing’ (Dawkins 1976/1989: 192). A meme is therefore a “unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation”(ibid.).

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A meme, just like a gene, is known for its desire to survive. According to Dawkins, ideas on the internet compete for the attention of the human brain (ibid.). To have a meme with a certain idea spread or even let it go ‘viral’ (as an analogy for a spreading biological virus), meme creators are looking for the best way to let a meme survive “at the expense of rival memes.” (ibid.). For that, a meme needs to pull out all the stops in terms of photo, video, audio or text material to survive. A meme in this study will be conceptualized as follows: “A comical or funny digital file (text, image, audio, video) that (whether or not in imitated or adapted form) is massively shared and copied on the internet and is spreading rapidly. A meme may want to convey a certain message, in addition to humour, but this is not necessary.”

3.3.2 Memes: Characteristics

In addition, each meme contains often three characteristics (Knobel and Lankshear 2007: 209). First of all, a meme must be humorous (idem: 209-213). It has been found that humour in particular is quite essential for the survival of a meme (ibid.). First of all, a sub-characteristic of humour is that it has a certain playfulness (Shifman 2011/2012: 195-196). Humour must be appreciated in itself, be attractive (Morreall 2005) and often has a "multi-layered perception of social situations" (Raskin 1985). In addition, incongruity is part of humour, since the "unexpected cognitive encounter" is laughable (Koestler 1965; Shifman 2011/2012: 196). A third form of humour focuses on the theory of superiority, where the viewer likes it if he or she is superior to others, particularly if they feel

offended or triggered (Billig, 2005; Shifman 2011/2012: 196). Aristotle, Plato and Hobbes describe the existence of superiority theory and its prevalence in humour (ibid.). Shifman describes this as follows: "some people enjoy not only watching videos of others whom they perceive to be inferior, but also take pleasure in scornfully imitating them, thus publicly demonstrating their own

superiority" (ibid.).

Secondly, a meme must be intertextual, with cross-references to various recognizable or popular icons and/or phenomena (Knobel and Lankshear 2007: 209, 213-215). Shifman states that: "Only memes suited to their socio-cultural environment will spread successfully; the others will become extinct" (Shifman 2011/2012: 188). This is because of the ‘wrong’ or ‘incomprehensible’

intertextuality. Knobel and Lankshear add to that, that a memes can be global, when the

recognizability is global, or "culture specific, shaping collective actions and mindsets" (Knobel and Lankshear, 2007).

Thirdly, a meme must contain anomalous juxtapositions (Knobel and Lankshear 2007: 209, 215-216). This can be done by using different formats (text, image, audio, video) or by using a paradox of non-matching themes (for example, controversial and generally accepted, horrible and entertaining or sweet and evil etc.). The humour, specifically the incongruity of humour, is increased as a result of which there is a higher chance of spreading the meme. With the digital possibilities for a meme there is room to achieve this incongruity of humour. In addition, this anomalous juxtapositions are

necessary to stimulate creativity for new memes with the same underlying idea or message of the original maker (Jenkins et al. 2009; Shifman 2011/2012: 196). However, memes can distance themselves from their original intentions on the internet, as recreators want to make a different message with a different goal (Zittrain 2014).

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3.3.3 Memes: Content

Seiffert-Brockmann, Diehl and Dobusch built on this description of memes and attempted to provide a scientific conceptualization of the word "meme". They differentiated three types of memes, namely: memes as relaxation (wasteful play online), memes as political expression (the social media political expression) and memes as cultural expression (cultural evolution) (Seiffert-Brockmann, Diehl and Dobusch 2018: 2863-2864). A meme as relaxation serves purely to make the viewer smile (ibid.). With a meme as a political expression, a meme aims to convey a certain political message, but it is disguised as a humorous message (ibid.). Finally, a meme can be a cultural expression. Benaim shows for example that memes can be a cultural and innovative expression in many areas within the internet culture (Benaim 2018: 901, 909). These kinds of memes try to influence the social debate and the prevailing culture (Seiffert-Brockmann, Diehl and Dobusch 2018: 2863-2864).

Memes are in principal neutral with the aim of entertaining people (Nissenbaum and Shifman 2017; Shifman 2013: 362). The primary goal of a creator of a meme is to make people laugh to make a meme potential for spreading. However, the creator of a meme can also purposefully have its own subjective political agenda and try to influence the political debate or public opinion in a meme. For example, memes are regularly racist, sexist or violent (Williams, et al. 2016; Glăveanu et al. 2018; Drakett et al. 2018; Harlow, Rowlett and Huse 2018). Also the researchers Kuznetsov and Soldatkina show that political memes cannot only be considered as humorous units, but also, just like traditional media, influence discourses in society and are able to create political commotion (Kuznetsov and Soldatkina 2017: 333). Moreover, memes regularly minimize, downplay or neutralize politically sensitive issues (Hristova 2014). In those cases, a (humorous) meme will serve as a cover for political beliefs (Kligler-Vilenchik and Thorson 2016: 1997; Milner, 2013; Ross and Rivers, 2017a, 2017b). Piata says: “The emergence of humorous metaphors does not seem unrelated to the genre of internet memes in which they arise; internet memes, especially those referring to political issues, are humorous par excellence and therefore the audience is likely to be biased toward a humorous interpretation of the content, in this case of metaphor.” (Piata 2016: 53) Political memes therefore not only contain humour, but also often a metaphor. Since a viewer of such a meme is often biased and will only regard it as humour, he or she may possibly be influenced by it or even be

indoctrinated. Santosa, Lestari and Ayun add that "Ironically though meme is not information that contains accuracy, relevance, and completeness of journalism, but at the same time it is highly trusted in demand, as they are easily accepted as information." (Santosa, Lestari and Ayun 2018: 1). Last but not least, Shifman adds that memes usually describe propaganda (Shifman 2013: 362; Santosa, Lestari Ayun and 2018: 1). Zittrain indicates in his research that when memes become part of popular culture, subcultures begin to re-conceptualize their own role, from only disseminators of memes to cultural and political producers (idem: 388). Memes began to serve as a political weapon and it is precisely these memes that are increasingly placed on regular social media (Nissenbaum and Shifman 2017; Zittrain 2014).

3.3.4 Memes: Politics and Online Radicalism and Extremism

Humorous memes can be used to interest, convince, or even indoctrinate the viewer for a specific political message. Accountability for the idea behind the meme is not required (Bull and Fetzer 2010). A political opinion that is highly controversial (or even unlawful) can nevertheless be spread as a "joke". It appears that extremist movements make use of this out of proportion to only humorous messages, to radicalize people and hide behind the humour of memes (Nagle 2017; Nissenbaum and Shifman 2017; Sparby 2017). That has several reasons.

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Since they have few other options for public expression, the distribution of memes that can go viral appeals to them (Nissenbaum and Shifman 2017; Sparby 2017; Davison 2012, 122; Wells 2018). A risk on the 'surface web' is that a post is always linked to an IP-address, as a result of which anonymity is not guaranteed. A content manager (on behalf of the owner of the website) can remove this material but can also block access for the IP-address. If it is punishable by law, you can also be traced more easily through that IP-address. It is important that the meme itself contains no reference to a real name. An anonymous account and an IP-address that do not lead to a device help with this. It may be possible that a meme is shared, so that other IP-addresses are linked to the meme and the creator can delete the meme so that he cannot be found.

Another advantage is that a humoristic meme with a hidden political message is more easily accepted by content managers, police and citizens, to prevent blocking and public shaming. As a result, it is also spread easier by citizens, so that the anonymity of the maker is once again guaranteed (ibid.). The viewer can be influenced unconsciously by psychological propaganda

techniques (Sparby 2017). In that case, the viewer does not know or does not realize that he is being influenced. The purpose of a meme is therefore very dependent on the creator.

Radicalizing memes want to strengthen the 'own' ideology (in-group). In addition, radicalizing memes want to weaken a certain other ideology, which can also be the regular norm (out-group). From sociological and evolutionary psychological theory, group formation behaviour is seen as a result of the benefits of working together in a group and thus protecting oneself against the out-group (Tajfel 1970). In other words, memes that facilitate a certain in-group compared to a certain out-group will be more in demand than memes that are neutral or have no 'victim/scapegoat' in the relevant meme (Tajfel 1970; Glăveanu, Saint-Laurent and Literat 2018).

Whether goals are achieved depends on the meme itself and on the viewer of the meme. In line with Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin and medievalist Dmitry Likhachov, scientists Kuznetsov and Slavina argue that humour and jokes can realize an alternative reality, a so-called “anti-world” (Kuznetsov and Slavina 2018: 425; Bakhtin 1990; Likhachov 1976). Kuznetsov and Slavina: “This reality is formed by special manipulative techniques, memes, ways of manipulation. It could replace and complement objective reality, which agreed to the concept of post-truth where lie and truth, political speech and joke, personality and simulacrum are indistinguishable from each other.” (Kuznetsov and Slavina 2018: 425).

Ross and Rivers argue "that through the use of common meme templates combined with the typical humorous or ironic message they convey, internet memes represent a potentially powerful form of socio-political participation in the online community" (Ross and Rivers 2019: 1) . Although it is a new phenomenon, recent studies show how politics are influenced by memes. For example, they

demonstrated how memes were used for the delegitimization of the 2016 US Presidential candidates (Ross and Rivers 2017a, 2017b). Davis, Glantz and Novak also showed how memes were used for protests and activism (Davis, Glantz and Novak 2016). Other studies showed how attention is sought for political events through mocking memes and how these are also commented on and criticized by other memes (Milner 2013; Huntington 2016; Ross and Rivers 2019: 2).

Durham analyses the difference between 'normal' photos and memes (Durham 2018). She uses the case of Alan Kurdi, the Syrian boy who drowned as a refugee in the Mediterranean Sea and washed ashore on the beach (idem: 240-241, 246-247). She comes to the conclusion that many

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photojournalists, when they see vulnerability, take the photo and have it published for more social justice and for ethical reasons (Durham 2018: 254). Memes, on the other hand, re-conceptualize vulnerability, says Durham (ibid.).

Memes build cultural capital within an online community of like-minded people (Nissenbaum and Shifman 2017; Durham 2018: 254). To be part of the community, a person must be meme literate and know a narrow set of accepted rules and formulas for memes for social status within these communities (Nissenbaum and Shifman 2017: 486). To attract attention to the internet and to gain status, one has to stand out. This often results in "highly crude, cynical, and irreverent content, aiming to provoke and shock for the sake of humour" (Nissenbaum and Shifman 2017: 487). As this is often the case, people become more accustomed to this and can start thinking more extreme about certain problems. In addition, they may become indifferent to 'widely accepted' norms and values. Many articles concerning memes are published quite recently. The basis for meme research is slowly taking shape. The first computer models are now under development and research is slowly shifting to analysing memes related to a topic (Beck-Fernandez, Nettleton, Recalde, Saez-Trumper, Barahona-Peñarandaa 2017). Ross and Rivers, for example, look at how memes behave towards climate change and how memes frame this theme (Ross and Rivers 2019). Frazer and Carlson show how memes are used for neo-colonialist or anti-colonialist sentiments, while Fang shows how a communist party leader was redefined in a meme (Frazer and Carlson 2017; Fang 2018).

Political internet memes and liberal democracy : extreme memes to mainstream