Folks, it had to happen eventually. The unbelievable scourge of memes online could not continue unabated without somebody trying to make them illegal. And some would say rightfully so.
Spain’s ruling Popular Party has presented a proposal to extend a 1982 law to outlaw the “spreading of images that infringe the honour of a person” to keep up with the Internet – which many activists in the country think is just an underhanded attempt to ban rude political memes.
Many memes target the Popular Party’s leader Mariano Rajoy. They are extremely baffling memes but I am sure they would make sense if you lived in Spain:
Mariano Rajoy cumple 61 años: los mejores memes con los que robarle 61 sonrisas https://t.co/IH7o0f60yF pic.twitter.com/9SRHlwPIVV
— Vanitatis (@vanitatis) March 27, 2016
I see.
“We are worried about this reform because internet does not require special laws; the same rights and duties should exist online as offline,” Spain’s Platform for the Defence of Freedom of Information said in a statement. The legal director of the body, Carlos Sánchez Almeida, said that this was plainly an attempt to censor memes the government doesn’t like:
If the plan is to clamp down on any publication of images without consent of the individual, the popular activity of using memes to generate political or social criticism would become dangerous.
For their part, the Spanish government has said that this is merely a proposal, and that it would only really target memes which are “insulting, involve death threats or accuse a person of committing a crime”.
OK. We’re in a paranoid atmosphere or persecution right now, people. The baby boomers of the world are coming for our memes.
Source: The Telegraph.
