HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle
Expand

Memed Into the Public Domain? The Battle for Pepe the Frog.

Views:981
@ReasonVids

A legal fight involving the alt-right, Trump voters, one of Washington, D.C.’s most powerful law firms, and the website 4chan is brewing.

----

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/reasontv
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magaz...
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason
Subscribe to our podcast at iTunes: https://goo.gl/az3a7a

Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.

----------------

Is Pepe the Frog a symbol of free speech or artwork hijacked by racist hate groups? Pepe, as he's known, has been labeled a Nazi, condemned by a presidential candidate, and now is at the center of an important legal battle over the First Amendment in this era of unlimited replication, imitation, and mutation. It's a fight that involves the alt-right, Trump voters, one of Washington, D.C.'s most powerful law firms, and the website 4chan, aka, the "asshole of the internet."

Pepe the Frog is the creation of a 38-year-old cartoonist from Ohio named Matt Furie, who declined to be interviewed for this story. The anthropomorphic frog first appeared twelve years ago in Furie's webcomic Boy's Club. In the series' most famous sequence, Pepe is caugh tstanding at a toilet with his pants around his ankles. As he later explains, "Feels good man."

It wasn't until a few years later, when someone posted the "feels good man" image to the anonymous online image board 4chan, that Pepe became a global phenomenon. The "feels bad man" and "sad frog" versions of Pepe emerged, and the meme spread from there.

Pepe entered the mainstream as celebrities like Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj posted his image to their social media. Matt Furie told the Daily Dot in 2015 that he supported the "anonymous people on the internet" who had turned his creation into an unstoppable meme, even going so far as to voice support for "people's decisions to profit off of Pepe."

But that was before Pepe became something else entirely.

Intellectual Property attorney Louis Tompros says Matt Furie contacted his firm WilmerHale after Pepe appeared in what he describes as an Islamophobic children's book in which Pepe does battle with a bearded alligator and what appear to be his burqa-clad minions. That was just the beginning.

Pepe's most recent evolution into a right-wing symbol most likely started on 4chan's /pol/ page, a board devoted to facilitating "politically incorrect" conversation that became a haven for Donald Trump supporters in 2016. Images of Pepe wearing red MAGA hats proliferated, and Donald Trump, Jr. even posted an image that included a Trumpified version of Pepe to social media.

The Clinton campaign responded by branding Pepe a "symbol associated with White Supremacy." The Anti-Defamation League lists the frog as a hate symbol.

Furie and his legal team began sending Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices to people they believed were using Pepe to "promote hate."

One recipient of a WilmerHale takedown notice was Mike Cernovich, a popular writer and vocal Trump supporter who describes himself as part of the "New Right."

"We're not alt-right, and we're not old school, National Review, boring right. We're aggressive," says Cernovich. "We're in a meme world. We're in a world where you have to be catchy, punchy... That's how you actually are persuading people to accept your ideas as true."

Watch the documentary on this case above.

Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Graphics by Brett Raney.

Music by Elvis Herod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license Artist: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/elvisherod

libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
,
mike cernovich
,
pepe the frog
,
memes
,
meme magic
,
alt right
,
trump
,
matt furie
,
racism
,
hate speech
,
free speech
,
copyright
,
fair use
    Thumbnail for Stossel: Deceitful Bias in The New York Times3:54
    Stossel: Deceitful Bias in The New York Times
    ReasonVids
    904 views
    Thumbnail for As an American, two words: The 'Glockinator'0:17
    As an American, two words: The 'Glockinator'
    Gviduser
    1189 views
    Thumbnail for Operation Choke Point: The Government's Covert War on Small Business8:49
    Operation Choke Point: The Government's Covert War on Small Business
    ReasonVids
    896 views
    Thumbnail for Will the Supreme Court Limit Police Power to “Stop and Frisk”?39:03
    Will the Supreme Court Limit Police Power to “Stop and Frisk”?
    IJvids
    1006 views
    Thumbnail for Anything but a wash0:21
    Anything but a wash
    bestofupgoat
    427 views
    Thumbnail for How Hitler turned things around.3:33
    How Hitler turned things around.
    allAheadFull
    606 views
    Thumbnail for Tucker Carlson calls out White Genocide by name and by jewish action0:54
    Tucker Carlson calls out White Genocide by name and by jewish action
    AOUisgay
    484 views
    Thumbnail for anti aircraft wedding1:56
    anti aircraft wedding
    Gviduser
    762 views
    Thumbnail for Ahhhhh. Diversity. 2:06
    Ahhhhh. Diversity.
    AOUisgay
    818 views
    Thumbnail for Cory Doctorow on The War on Kids, Boing Boing, & His Next Novel5:26
    Cory Doctorow on The War on Kids, Boing Boing, & His Next Novel
    ReasonVids
    877 views
    Thumbnail for Clark Neily discusses the difference between judicial engagement and abdication0:40
    Clark Neily discusses the difference between judicial engagement and abdication
    IJvids
    774 views
    Thumbnail for Mississippi Drug War Blues (Part 2 of 3)7:05
    Mississippi Drug War Blues (Part 2 of 3)
    ReasonVids
    1006 views
    Thumbnail for Kamala Harris' Dishonest Campaign To Destroy Backpage.com5:31
    Kamala Harris' Dishonest Campaign To Destroy Backpage.com
    ReasonVids
    1005 views
    Thumbnail for The real source of jew's power0:33
    The real source of jew's power
    AOUisgay
    1095 views
    Thumbnail for Vsauce videos be like | Professional Dumbasses1:18
    Vsauce videos be like | Professional Dumbasses
    invidious
    708 views
    Thumbnail for Court Strips Elderly Woman of Her Home and Ruins Her Life18:32
    Court Strips Elderly Woman of Her Home and Ruins Her Life
    IJvids
    925 views
    Thumbnail for Brian Doherty on Ron Paul's Revolution3:29
    Brian Doherty on Ron Paul's Revolution
    ReasonVids
    987 views
    Thumbnail for Flashback: OKC – A Conspiracy Theory | The Corbett Report (Unofficial)4:44
    Flashback: OKC – A Conspiracy Theory | The Corbett Report (Unofficial)
    invidious
    179 views
    Thumbnail for Novak Djokovic Wins His 100th Title!! | Tennis TV0:37
    Novak Djokovic Wins His 100th Title!! | Tennis TV
    invidious
    25 views
    Thumbnail for Radley Balko on the 3 Worst Cases of Police Abuse in 20115:36
    Radley Balko on the 3 Worst Cases of Police Abuse in 2011
    ReasonVids
    920 views
    Thumbnail for 🔴 LIVE #ข่าวเช้าช่องวัน | 28 พฤศจิกายน 2567 | ข่าวช่องวัน | one311:00
    🔴 LIVE #ข่าวเช้าช่องวัน | 28 พฤศจิกายน 2567 | ข่าวช่องวัน | one31
    invidious
    118 views
    Thumbnail for Farmer0:08
    Farmer
    bestofvoatxyz
    473 views
    Thumbnail for Child sex trafficking ring busted.0:38
    Child sex trafficking ring busted.
    bestofsaidit
    706 views
    Thumbnail for Chink rink2:46
    Chink rink
    AOUisgay
    1402 views
    Thumbnail for On the recent election fraud16:09
    On the recent election fraud
    bestofvoatxyz
    846 views

points

Permalink
Reply
libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
,
mike cernovich
,
pepe the frog
,
memes
,
meme magic
,
alt right
,
trump
,
matt furie
,
racism
,
hate speech
,
free speech
,
copyright
,
fair use
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle