Internet Memes as protest media: the anti-establishment digital protest of Mahsa Amini

11 
INTRODUCTION  
 
In the era of Web 2.0, mainstream media are no longer the only creators and distributor 
of news and information. The rise of digital media technologies and applications has 
represented an alternative way for people to access and contribute, simultaneously, to 
the production and delivery of news and media content. The power of digital platforms 
over traditional news media has led to the process of Platformization of news, i.e. the 
penetration of the infrastructures, economic processes, and governmental frameworks 
of platforms in different spheres of life, such as economy, politics, and culture. The 
process of Platformization has had important consequences on political 
communication, leading to the process of mediatization of politics (Mazzoleni & 
Schulz, 1999: 250). The process of mediatization of politics refers to the situation in 
which the media are the most important source of information and the vehicle of 
communication between citizenry and the institutions involved in the government. 
Consequently, citizenry or media users depend on the media to access political news 
and public affair contents, just as governments’ institutions and politicians depend on 
the media to communicate and analyze the citizenry’s opinions and trends. This 
transformation has altered the news distribution cycle, and the audience has become 
more decentralized. Therefore, the concept of citizen journalism plays a crucial role in 
comprehending this process of decentralization by involving internet users in creating 
user-generated content that contributes to social and political discourse. User-
generated content, or UGC, is defined as “any kind of text, data or action performed 
by online digital users, published and disseminated by the same users through 
independent channels, that incur an expressive or communicative effect either on an 
individual manner or combined with other contributions from the same or other 
sources” (Barbosas Dos Santos, 2021). User-generated content is considered a form 
of bottom-up communication, as the audience can shape a given context's social and 
cultural architecture, and it comprises a plethora of formats, among which Internet 
memes are one of the most used. Positioned as creative devices, Internet memes 
facilitate the potentially viral communication of one's social and political beliefs and 
orientations, generally always among groups with similar or opposing ideological 
beliefs.
12 
Internet memes as influential political communication 
 
Among the most produced UGC, Internet memes represent a way to capture a complex 
storyline, grasping critical elements of an event or a story and mixing humorous 
elements to explain and shed light on social and political issues. As Internet memes 
function as tools of communication, used mainly by young generations to participate 
in social and political public affairs, it is essential to understand the features and 
functionalities of these new digital tools. The term meme was firstly introduced by the 
evolutionary biologist Dawkins in 1976 to define “a unit of cultural transmission or 
imitation, similar to genes” (Dawkins, 1976). With the rise of Web 2.0, the term meme 
has evolved to define viral content spreading and circulating online. The first 
academically and definition of Internet meme was proposed by Patrick Davison (2009) 
to define “a piece of culture which gains influence through online transmission”.  
Brubaker et al. (2018) and Shifman (2013) outlined the three main analytical 
dimensions of Internet memes: Humor, Intertextuality, and Manipulation. Humor and 
sarcasm are the core elements of Internet memes, as they usually are the most attractive 
factors for the audience. Knobel and Lankshear (2007) divided humorous content into 
two groups: situational humor and biting social commentary. The second analytical 
dimension is Intertextuality, defined as “the mediation of meaning filtered by codes 
imparted by other texts” (Kristeva, 1980). The intertextual relationship between texts 
can be classified into three ideal types: obligatory, optional, and accidental 
(Fitzsimmons, 2013). Intertextuality can be studied also by distinguishing between 
horizontal and vertical intertextuality. Finally, the last analytical dimension studied by 
Brubaker et al. (2018) and Shifman (2013) is Manipulation. Manipulation is 
fundamental for the diffusion and the remixing of memes to ensure their virality. 
Even if Internet memes are usually linked to mocks and teases, in some cases they 
serve a higher scope. Research has demonstrated that people produce and use Internet 
memes also to contribute to public conversations about political events or political 
actors. The ongoing memeification of politics has been considered by many scholars 
as a process of empowering ordinary citizens, enabling them to communicate their 
views on essential societal and political matters. Internet users intentionally and 
deliberately produce political memes to contribute to the political discourse, using
13 
memetic content as political commentary and self-expression (Shifman, 2014). Chagas 
and et. (2019) developed a taxonomy of political memes, based on previous studies on 
online memes and political communication, classifying them as: persuasive memes, 
grassroots action memes, and public discussion memes. 
In particular, Internet memes represent a modern form of political participation, as 
they are ideologically versatile and can function as political propaganda 
(Makhortykh & Gonzalez, 2020; Smith 2019), or as a digital form of activism and 
protest (Fang, 2020; Milner, 2013; Hristova, 2014). As political propaganda, political 
memes have become the latest evolution of leaflet propaganda and a fundamental tool 
in the political arsenal of digital marketing (Nieubuurt, 2021). Through the meta-
memeing process (Anderson & Sheeler, 2014), Internet memes are used by political 
actors and organizations to build a positive or negative image of a specific political 
candidate. Internet memes can function also as a digital form of activism and anti-
establishment protest (Fang, 2020; Milner, 2013; Hristova, 2014), especially to 
contrast censorship and limitations of freedom. In repressive regimes, alternative 
digital tools, such as memes, may be used to express political and social dissent, 
mobilizing collective actions, as the government strictly controls mainstream media. 
Study approach  
 
Despite the centrality of Internet memes in political communication, both as political 
propaganda and media protest, they have remained unstudied for many years. To 
address this issue, this study undertakes an empirical analysis combining digital and 
qualitative methods, investigating the use of Internet memes to support the anti-
establishment digital protest of Mahsa Amini.  
 
Since September 2022, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been undergoing civil and 
social unrest caused by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old 
young girl. The Iranian girl was arrested in Tehran on 16 September 2022 by the 
country’s morality police for failing to wear the Hijab properly, the Islamic headscarf 
every woman has to wear. Moreover, since the beginning of the Mahsa Amini protests, 
social media platforms have been used to foster demonstrations of political and social
14 
disappointment against the regime. This study through an empirical analysis, which 
combines digital and qualitative methods, aims to understand the role of Internet 
memes as protest media, outlining the main characters and symbols of the Mahsa 
Amini’s protest.  
 
Based on three criteria, i.e., visual data, young user base and availability of data, 
Instagram has been used as a platform for scraping data, following the medium 
#Hairforfreedom. From the initial dataset of 415 data points, we obtained a smaller 
sample of 225, removing manually those photos and videos which were not considered 
as Internet memes and did not present the pattern chosen. In order to analyze the final 
dataset, two research techniques were adopted with the aim to answer the research 
questions. Firstly, a hashtags and co-hashtags analysis was performed to investigate 
the values and symbols employed to label the Internet memes of the dataset. Secondly, 
the final selected Internet memes were presented and analyzed performing a visual 
analysis, in order to define significance of the memes as semiotic works.  
 
Summary of findings  
 
This study used the hashtag and co-hashtags analysis and the visual analysis in order 
to understand how Internet memes as a protest media have been developing during the 
anti-establishment protests of Mahsa Amini.  
 
The study demonstrates that the main character of Amini’s protest is the women. 
Young girls and women, coming from all segments of the society became the main 
character of the Revolution. Moreover, aside from age differences women in Iran 
united to fight for the same purpose, the respect of women’s rights and freedoms. 
Following the medium, hashtag #Hairforfreedom, the study outlines the main symbol 
of the Revolution, which is the practice of cutting locks of hair. As the research 
demonstrates, the practice of cutting locks of hair can be traced back to thousands of 
years where it was employed to convey anguish and mourning. At the beginning of the 
protests Iranian women and girls began cutting locks of hair as a mourning ritual for 
the death of Mahsa Amini, and overtime it turned into a way to protest and express 
anger and disdain against the establishment.
15 
     This study also demonstrates the central role of Internet memes as a vehicle for 
political expression and participation. Indeed, the results of the study demonstrate the 
connection between Internet memes and the notion of participatory culture (Jenkins 
et al., 2007). Moreover, to provoke a higher impact worldwide a lot of celebrities, 
especially women, with different nationalities and age, began to post selfies and videos 
of themselves cutting locks. As consequence, thousands of women worldwide began 
to share their own photos and selfies while cutting hair for the cause. Moreover, the 
study is able to demonstrate that Internet memes, thanks to their simplicity of 
manipulation, can make a subject viral. Indeed, Internet memes can transcend 
geographic boundaries and cultural constructs, creating a lingua franca, a common 
language to unite dispersed users (Milner, 2016). Furthermore, the use of Internet 
memes by Iranian protesters offered them anonymity. Davison (2009) points out that 
Internet memes encourage non-attribution and anonymous participation and unlock 
new and potentially transgressive or empowering models of communication and 
participation. Lastly, the study demonstrates that Internet memes, as micro-actions of 
media, are essential to form collective identities among isolated and marginalized 
individuals (Xiao Mina, 2014). Indeed, the anti-establishment protest of Mahsa Amini 
can be defined as a counter-revolution led by marginalized and isolated individuals, 
women, and girls.  
 
This study demonstrates, through the analysis of the anti-establishment protest of 
Mahsa Amini, the potential of Internet memes as protest media. Indeed, Internet 
memes can represent as a powerful tool to reach younger generations and the so-called 
digital natives. In particular, through Internet meme’s simplicity of manipulation and 
virality power, their two main characteristics, Internet memes as digital protest media 
foster public and political participation and engagement.