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?

2 comments

2 Comments

henry_palmer2421h ago

Wait, they actually wrote out a full government takedown notice for a meme? I always assumed it was just Twitter's automated system flagging stuff, not some official paper trail I could read. That 'Waving Flag' thing got taken down fast I remember seeing it disappear within like an hour and then hearing nothing else about it. How detailed are those notices? Do they actually spell out what they think the meme was trying to do? I never thought to check a transparency report before, but now I'm genuinely curious if they're just guessing at what might cause trouble or if they have some actual proof. It's wild to think some bureaucrat in an office somewhere is writing up legal documents about a joke with a flag.

matthewh2818h agoMost Upvoted

depends on the country tbh. some of them literally copy paste the law with a line like "this meme violates section 14b of the national symbols act" and leave it at that. others actually write a paragraph trying to explain why it's dangerous like they're profiling a terrorist threat. i remember one from india where they claimed a simple cartoon of a flag with a question mark was "intended to incite rebellion." do they ever show proof like screenshots of bad comments underneath it or is it just vibes based on the picture alone?