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![big gay meme frog big gay meme frog](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/001/459/679/28f.jpg)
While platforms have been doing better at making broader commitments against hate, like Facebook’s recent announcement to take a wider view of hate speech and extremist-related content, what’s missing is the ground-floor view.
![big gay meme frog big gay meme frog](https://img.memecdn.com/gay-frogs_o_7237257.jpg)
So what can platforms do? First, they can fill the public information vacuum around hate speech policy. If Google, Twitter and Facebook had built in photo recognition to take down all images of Pepe the Frog, the movement might have been robbed of a critical rallying cry. “Symbols and colors that mean something in one culture can mean something completely different in another culture,” a protester told The Times, “so I think if Americans are really offended by this, we should explain to them what it means to us.” Most seem to understand the frog to be a symbol of youth and were unaware of his link to the alt-right.
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Local activists in Hong Kong transformed Pepe into an emoji on encrypted platforms, dressed as a protester or a journalist. Those who call on the companies to take steps to stem the tide of xenophobia, racism and the targeting of minorities that we’re seeing around the world should keep this in mind as well. Pepe, Gaysper and other once-hateful symbols teach us that tech companies should institutionalize impermanence - they should build their policies to continually adapt to the changing world. Cunning users termed him Gaysper, and as the image went viral, he transformed from intended insult to a stance against hatred via mockery and humor.
BIG GAY MEME FROG ANDROID
Aragorn was facing down orcs, who sported symbols for feminism, communism, media outlets - and oddly, an Android ghost emoji striped with rainbow colors. In April, the Spanish political party Vox tweeted a meme referencing “The Lord of the Rings”: a picture of Aragorn, digitally manipulated to include the party logo and a Spanish flag. But today, thanks to meme culture, online audiences can flip hate speech on its head faster than ever. Similarly, the pink triangle, which was originally a badge used by Nazis to identify gay people, was transformed into a sign of pride. “Queer” has generally regained a neutral or even positive connotation. Beginning in the 1990s, AIDS activists re-appropriated the term as a signifier of self-identity, to highlight the ugliness of homophobia in order to confront it. “Queer” became associated primarily with homosexual men between the 1910s and 1920s, and became a slur. Take a former epithet like “ queer.” It originally had neutral connotations of general nonmainstream behavior before the early 1900s. It provides a real-time demonstration of how hate speech can be defanged, based on shifting circumstances, expanded frames of reference and varied common usage.Īt times, the targets of hateful terms have reworked or reversed them. Though exactly the same in appearance, the Hong Kong version of Pepe is a different frog. To manage it, platforms must constantly re-evaluate hateful symbols and communicate with users about their decision-making.įew examples illustrate this need better than the long, strange journey of Pepe the Frog, the crudely drawn comic-book amphibian that originated as a mascot for slackers was repeatedly altered by white supremacists for racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic memes was classified by the Anti-Defamation League as a hate symbol in 2016 and was repurposed this summer and fall by protesters in Hong Kong to promote a pro-democracy message that had nothing to do with white supremacy or terrorism. Hate speech is fluid, dependent on cultural context and social meaning. The idea that platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram should remove hate speech is relatively uncontroversial.