About

The Handbook of Hate Memes is a booklet created in mid-2022 by the European Observatory of Online Hate (EOOH) and funded by the European Union that consists of over 100 pages devoted to the education of what hateful memes exist online, breaking down their meaning and usage with various examples. Though it was originally intended to be an educational resource and guide for agencies and classes to learn about extremist and harmful memes, the guidebook was largely met with backlash and mocked online upon release, as well as becoming the subject of memes itself.

History

On July 7th, 2022, the European Observatory of Online Hate posted on Twitter^[1] about its newly unveiled handbook, saying that it was a combined effort of law enforcement, linguistics, tech and arts people to create the guide, which was meant to be an educational reference. The tweet itself also contained a link to a Google form that anyone could fill out the form to receive a download link to an HD copy of the guide, which was boasted to have over 200 full-color pages and 600 hateful memes arranged by 100 topics, with over 50 pages of commentary by experts in the fields (shown below). Though the tweet was later deleted, it received over 200 likes, 74 retweets and 320 quote tweets before its deletion.

As of July 19th, 2022, no mention of the Handbook of Hate Memes existed on the EOOH Twitter account and the official download link no longer exists (though many reuploads have since appeared online).

KYM Entries As Pages

Within the handbook's 100 pages, Know Your Meme is listed as the main resource for 13 of the memes discussed, accounting for over 10 percent of the handbook itself. The memes explicitly sourcing Know Your Meme as the main resource are Glowing Laser Eyes, Sheeeeit, Wojak, Pepe the Frog, Feels Good Man, Yes Chad, Nordic Mediterranean, Reeeeeee, Triggered Feminist, GoBaldForBLM, Kekistan, Apu, Spurdo, NPC Wojak, Bloomer and Jetblue Racist Burgerking, with JetBlue Burgerking getting several fanart and photoshop edits added to his collage page (shown below).

Reception

After it was debuted by the EOOH on July 7th, 2022, the handbook started to get attention online, primarily on Twitter via the initial tweet, which was deleted shortly after. The various memes and references that people made to comment on the book were primarily about certain entries within it, with a special nod being taken to the cultural entries such as #34, "Incest – Illiteracy – Islam." One of the earliest reactions still online was posted by Twitter user @bartdogmanesq^[4] on July 14th, which used the "Dogs Playing Poker" painting by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge to make a meme about the book.

On July 16th, 2022, the book appeared on 4chan's /pol/^[6] board, which was frequently mentioned in the handbook, with the original poster calling it "obviously psyop bait." The book was also discussed in a five-page thread on Kiwi Farms^[5] beginning on July 17th under the title "The European Union's Handbook of Hate Memes," which included a poll asking the question "Do you enjoy a “hate meme” from this book?" the received over 100 votes (98 percent "yes") in two days.

On July 17th, after the initial tweets and Google form were deleted and traces removed, Twitter user John Dee^[3] posted a review of the handbook on Telegram, calling it "anti-meme propaganda" that wasn't even well done, and an obvious attempt by people who aren't true meme practitioners, a sentiment echoed by others on that side of the memesphere during initial backlash (shown below).

Twitter user @thebabyfren^[2] also posted about it on July 18th, 2022, posting the page itself and saying that there were a lot of Redpills being found within the book (shown below).

Search Interest

External References