On February 24th, 2022, the news that Russia invaded Ukraine made headlines all over the world. Many Ukrainian and Russian people were drafted into the war. What is different between the wars from the past and those that are happening in the present time is the use of the Internet. The Internet is an integral part of our daily routines and is especially used for instantaneous social networking. When this war and its tragedies flooded the Internet, many people shared about their fears for another upcoming World War. This was not everyone, however, as a large portion of internet users contributed by creating memes about Russia v. Ukraine. Strangely enough, Ukraine’s official social media accounts also participated in meme-creation, feeding into this newfound internet response to wars. As demonstrated by Ukraine's efforts to garner support, internet memes may become the new political art.

Political art and internet memes fulfill similar purposes and roles by utilizing humour while providing a needed information channel. Internet memes and political art are used to express an idea or an opinion to a lot of people in a short frame of time. Modern-day political art often takes on a humorous, almost bizarre route in the hopes to gain the attention of the viewer and create conversation. Similarly, internet memes often express humorous ideas and trends that are often backed up with clips, images, and/or music which gain the attention of the reader. These memes thrive on social media because of how sharable they are. The more shareable something is, the more people will see and discuss it. The Internet and social media is a staple in the majority of society’s lives because it is a platform that is utilized for fast communication.  Memes have both the sharable and conversational elements that make them successful on the Internet. For memes to have these viral elements means that the concealed message within them will quickly reach a widespread demographic. Internet memes and political art portray very similar informative purposes. 

Internet memes are inexpensive and require few resources to make. Since most internet memes are based on a popular template, you don’t need to be skilled to make one. They are essentially inexpensive to make unlike political art, which you need to pay an actual artist to make. Accounting for the artists’ time and resources, the cost may quickly add up. Any person can make a meme at any time because most memes already follow a pre-made and trendy template. The quality of the image is not necessary for success either, as pixelation or difference in fonts can enhance the distribution of a meme because of its poor quality. The advantage of creating propaganda through internet memes is that it doesn't feel like you are selling something to the viewer. When one views political art, the viewer actively acknowledges that the creator is trying to sell them something, whether that be a belief or an ideology. When internet memes are used for marketing purposes, they pass under the viewer’s radar. This is because memes are perceived as something to simply be laughed at. This deceptiveness leads to viewers becoming more receptive to the message that the meme is attempting to convey. Advertisers and sponsors who hire social media accounts that solely post memes are using meme-like formats to advertise their products. 

Memes have been used in the past to express political messages. Many people would find the idea of a country using memes for political purposes to garner support during a war absurd. Ukraine, however, has had major success in utilizing a significant component of digital and youth culture. Many of their recent and more popular tweets on Twitter have been popular meme formats rehashed to support the message to arm Ukraine through donations. An example of this is a meme they posted on April 13th, 2022 on their Twitter account with the “ArmUkraineNow'' hashtag. In the picture, it shows a popular meme template originating from TikTok that states “I [Ukraine] receive: heavy artillery, heavily armoured vehicles, air defence systems, combat aircraft … You receive: Ukraine fights and defeats Russia so that you don’t have to fight later.” It may be to your surprise that Ukraine was not the first to begin using the Internet’s “inside jokes'' for political purposes. Many people recognize the iconic comic character “Pepe the Frog.” The anthropomorphized character quickly caught the attention of the Internet, along with his catchphrase “Feels good, man.” The ubiquity of Pepe the Frog has since faded in the present time but is still widely recognizable by many people. This rather harmless character and catchphrase, however, quickly became politicized. Pepe the Frog was most prominently used by alt-right groups to express anti-semitic messages and was used as a “mascot” of sorts. The character was also used by 2019-2022 Hong Kong protestors in a democracy movement. 

Internet memes and political art are not so different than they seem. They could replace political art and propaganda. Like Ukraine demonstrated, they can fulfill similar purposes. Memes are inexpensive to make, and memes did have a place in the political scheme at one point. Internet memes are slowly, but surely becoming more and more prevalent in the modern political scheme. They more easily utilize the digital age due to their sharability and ability to hitchhike on to trends. Though memes already have a history in politics, it calls into question whether or not they will be used more frequently to spread propaganda, and whether memes will fully replace the creation and use of political art.