Overview

Free Hans Island is a satirical dispute led by both Canadian and Danish Reddit users to claim ownership of Hans Island, a small, uninhabited barren knoll that sits in the center of the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait that runs between Canada and Greenland, which is part of the Danish commonwealth. The line for the border between Canada and Greenland crosses straight through Hans Island, causing mild dispute between the two countries over who has ownership.

Background

In 1972, a team of Canadians and Danes working in the Nares Strait determined the geographic coordinates for Hans Island. During negotiations between Canada and Denmark on their maritime boundary in 1973, both states claimed that Hans Island was part of their territory. No agreement was reached between the two governments on the issue.^[1] Over the following years, the dispute of the territory has become a long-running joke between the two countries. In 1984, the Danish Minister of Greenland planted a flag saying "Welcome to the Danish Island," leaving a bottle of brandy, prompting Canadians to respond with a flag of their own, leaving behind bottles of Canadian Club. As of 2016, the dispute has not been settled.

Online Developments

In late November 2016, the dispute attracted a bevy of attention on Reddit, as members of /r/Canada and /r/Denmark engaged in an "upvote war" to gain control of Hans Island. The origins of the battle are unclear. According to one user named koproller,^[2] it began when he responded to an image macro on /r/funny that showed a picture of Hans Island and captioned with the flag/liquor story.^[3] koproller then made a subreddit called /r/FreeHans^[4] on November 26th devoted to the battle between Canadians and Danes for control of Hans Island. On November 26th, a thread titled "Denmark. Upvote this so that whenever people google Denmark, this photo comes up."^[5] with a picture of Hans Island. The post gained over 6,000 upvotes in four days and made it to Reddit's front page. A website devoted to arguing for Danish control of Hans Island, freehansisland.com,^[6] was created and covered the event with satirical hyperbole.

Search Interest

External References