This type of rhetoric is nothing new. People have been making bad arguments since time immemorial. Nor is Instagram the only platform hosting toxic political discourse — but its “story” feature makes it a particularly hospitable habitat. Instagram stories allow people to share other people’s posts or their own original photos outside of their main profiles for 24 hours, after which they disappear. Posting too much political material on a personal social-media account can make a profile boring, but if the content disappears a day after it goes up, that problem is no longer present. In the same way, users enjoy a lack of accountability that they might face on, say, Twitter. If a new employer or a prospective social connection were to see misleading and hyperpolitical posts on a profile, it could backfire. Not a problem if the content goes away after a short period of time.
Meanwhile, the incentive to share is overwhelming. Progressives post these memes to signal loyalty to social-justice causes, something that’s been happening for years but ratcheted up during 2020’s activism earthquake. In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin, Instagram users participated in “Blackout Tuesday,” during which they flooded the platform with black squares. Refusal to participate was a sign of inadequate devotion to racial justice, and some who did not join in faced backlash from their peers. The army of “keyboard warriors” grew.
But what do these posts accomplish? As currently constructed, they are too short and ham-fisted to make compelling points. Their aim is not to persuade but vilify. And yet their reach is growing, floating up to the halls of power.
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