With Instagram Purging Meme Pages, We Need a Decentralized Platform for Memes

Instagram is embroiled in a scandal after deleting some 30 meme pages which combined had a total of 33M followers. The pages were removed due to ‘violating terms of service.’ Instagram claims that the accounts were responsible for selling usernames as well as ‘fraudulently’ obtaining other Instagram accounts.

Major Meme Accounts Go Dark

Many Instagram meme accounts have been seemingly shadow-banned for no reason. As one user Ben (@spicymp4) writes:

this is the endgame. 40m+ followers and over $600k+ in accounts lost in two days. @instagram @facebook fucking own up to what you did and rollback, you can’t stay silent in this. peronally lost 600k+ followers for no good reason. #reactivatespicy #memepurge pic.twitter.com/xpgy8KrH2d

— IG: bnjee2 (@spicymp4) July 27, 2019

It’s also well-known that some of these meme pages make substantial revenue. For example, 18-year old ‘Craig’ (@autist) makes some $30,000 from his page and claims he was saving up for college with the money. It seems many of the meme accounts are still bewildered as to why they were removed from Instagram. Moreover, they were not given any warnings beforehand; they were surprised to find that their accounts were suspended with seemingly no explanation. Funny enough, as a way to curry favor with Instagram, some meme accounts have resorted to sucking up to the social media giant. As user @godsbleach writes in its bio: “I LOVE INSTAGRAM @instagram I LOVE YOUR APP ITS AMAZING.”

A Decentralized Meme Platform

Let’s consider for a moment an alternative to Instagram. One where a single entity can not arbitrarily suspend accounts without proper reason. It would essentially be censorship-resistant and one where meme connoisseurs could feely spread their most refined content. Such an idea is not outside the realm of possibility. Multiple platforms have recently sprung up, built on various blockchain-based networks, dubbing themselves “decentralized alternatives” to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. They have yet to catch on, however, and none have the UI we’ve all grown used to on the leading platforms. Moreover, none of them have been dedicated to memes. Yet, as the Instagram purge shows, memes are in danger. Moreover, memes are valuable. Just consider how resilient PepeCash has been despite the cryptocurrency bear market, now worth around $8M and serving as the ‘currency’ for an entire rare Pepe directory.  The point is, we need a platform where we can share memes (and image and videos, in general) freely without the fear of our accounts being blacklisted, banned, or muted. Instagram has proven with this recent purge that it is arbitrarily banning accounts. It’s time for the meme-makers to do some magic and create their own, separate ecosystem—if the memes are truly spicy, then the audience will follow. Do you think Instagram will further ban more meme accounts? Is this just the beginning of a greater purge? Let us know your thoughts below.