1. THE PERFECT
TOOL OF
SUPPRESSION
A case study of trolling memes in Azerbaijan
Dr. Katy Pearce
@katypearce
University of
Washington

2. SHARABLE
REPRODUCABLE
COMPETITIVE AND SELECTIVE
ANONYMOUS
a. a group of digital items sharing
common characteristics of
content, form, and/or stance,
which
b. are created with an awareness of
each other, and
c. are circulated, imitated, and/or
transformed via the Internet by
many users (Shifman, 2013)
They are “pieces of cultural
information that pass along from
person to person, but gradually scale
into a shared social phenomenon”
(Shifman, 2013)
And, a nationwide inside joke
(Milner, 2013)
HUMOROUS
DEFINITION AFFORDANCES
MEMES

3. POLITICAL
SUBVERSION
Memes could play a role in
political participation as
persuasion or advocacy;
grassroots action; cheap;
enjoyable; display of
criticism (Shifman, 2013)
But these same
affordances that enable
memes used as tools of
subversions are the same
affordances that make
them tools of suppression

4. The "posting of incendiary comments with the intent of provoking others into conflict"
(Hardaker, 2010, p. 224)
Rafferty (2011) defines trolling as "the attempt to hurt, humiliate, annoy, or provoke in
order to elicit an emotional response for one’s own enjoyment" (p. 26)
Bergstrom (2011) defines trolling as transgression of community norms that results in
anger, harm, or discomfort
A troller is a computer-mediated communication user who has an intention of causing
disruption and/or triggering or exacerbating conflict for the purpose of their own
amusement (Hardaker, 2010)
TROLLING
DEFINITION

5. THE LIFE OF A MEME
DEGREE OF OBSCURITY
MULTILAYERED
HUMOROUS
ANONYMITY OF CREATOR
SHARER’S AUDIENCE

6. THE LIFE OF A MEME
DEGREE OF OBSCURITY
MULTILAYERED
HUMOROUS
ANONYMITY OF CREATOR
SHARER’S AUDIENCE

7. THE LIFE OF A MEME
DEGREE OF OBSCURITY
MULTILAYERED
HUMOROUS
ANONYMITY OF CREATOR
SHARER’S AUDIENCE

8. TAGGED
EVERYONE SEES IT
ATTACK ON ONE’S HONOR
DEFINITION
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOUR
GOVERNMENT WAS TROLLING YOU?
TAGGING = DIRECT ATTACK? TROLLING?

9. TAKEAWAY
When a powerful
authoritarian regime trolls
its citizens, especially
through memes, there is
no recourse
You CANNOT feed the trolls
when feeding carries
incredible risk