Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
memetic warfare en · NOUN
Pronunciation
Meanings
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(uncountable) The usage of Internet memes in an effort to achieve geopolitical goals or to enact social change.
The concept of 'memetic warfare' emerged out of military debates as an extension of informational war and psyops.
2018, Catherine Happer, Andrew Hoskins, William Merrin, editors, Trump’s Media War, Springer, →ISBN, page 219:That army was ready to engage in memetic warfare at any given moment, and it did. Throughout the campaign, Trump’s meme army monitored then candidate Hillary Clinton’s every move, sharing fabricated allegations of health problems with the hashtag #HillaryHealth.
2025 October 29, Alyssa Mercante, “Why Trump’s White House is using video game memes to recruit for ICE”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:I believe memetic warfare could be effective in countering Daesh’s recruiting and propaganda efforts and in modern conflict in general, including operations other than war. Trolling, it might be said, is the social media equivalent of guerrilla warfare, and memes are its currency of propaganda.
2016 January 10, Jeff Giesea, “It’s Time To Embrace Memetic Warfare”, in Defence Strategic Communications, volume 1, number 1, →DOI, pages 68–76:Gamergate, "the Fappening" (or Celebgate), and the subsequent Comicsgate are examples of campaigns that deployed active memetic warfare in racialized and gendered ways to attack and drive away a constructed enemy.
2021, Lisa Nakamura, Hanah Stiverson, Kyle Lindsey, Racist Zoombombing, Routledge, →ISBN: