In an increasingly politicalized media environment, Georgians are embracing new forms of political commentary, particularly memes - viral visuals mixed with witty descriptions. 

Coined by British biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976, memes have become a democratic way of commenting on various topics around the world. Their popularity is driven in part because, compared to traditional media, the internet has offered a wider platform to freely express opinions without a fear of censorship and pressure from authorities. 

A 2022 study in Germany found people who share internet political memes see the medium as a safer way to express their beliefs and opinions, even if they are controversial. The authors argue memes give people a sense of connection and shared identity with others who think similarly. Study author Anne Leiser argued that memes tap into core human needs for identity, belonging and fun, while also channeling societal tensions. They crystallize how the individual and the collective connect in our digitalized world.

In Georgia, memes have become a powerful tool to ridicule political missteps or draw attention to unpopular policies. This was the case in 2020 when the President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, accidentally used the word “karantina” instead of “quarantine.” Later, “karantina” became a hashtag and meme wave from people who wanted to criticize the government’s ways of handling the pandemic.

More recently, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze inspired a wave of memes when he stated that the ongoing, much-delayed renovation of a central avenue would be completed by the promised deadline, even if he had to work on it himself. Users satirized City Hall’s inability to finish the renovation by creating and sharing photo manipulations of Kaladze as a member of the road crew. 

In February 2024, Georgians created a multitude of memes in response to the ruling Georgian Dream’s decision to replace Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili with MP Irakli Kobakhidze.

There are instances when memes transform into digital movements. In March 2023, young Georgians turned online memes into physical protest banners in a mass protest against a law that would have restricted press freedom and hindered Georgia's EU membership efforts. 

Memes were used as protest banners and ridiculed pretty much anyone and anything in favor of the law. The media called it a Gen Z protest, showing that young Georgians were finding new ways to express their political opinions. 

Protestor Nata Uridia notes “nobody is safe from becoming a meme.”

“This is us now and that is how we protest,” she says, adding that the mass use of memes were not planned--she and her friends wanted to make others laugh about their shared struggle. “Humor was our way of saying ‘we are too cool to turn into Russia.’”

Nata still remembers the rush of seeing comments on a TikTok she posted from the demonstrations. “The comments were not only from Georgians but also people from Ukraine and other countries. It was like we all spoke the same internet language and that people could understand our troubles abroad,” she says.

Memes reach their peak and fade away in quite a short period and so does digital activism in most cases. The number of people who like and share a meme only exists in virtual reality. But taking memes to the streets as political statements made it possible for protestors to react and show actual human emotion to their creative banners in real life.

For Dachi Lepsveridze, memes have become “simple communication channels.”

“When I share memes on my wall and others react to it or simply share it, it means that we are on the same page and there’s no need for additional explanation,” he says. But he added that the timeliness of memes can also be a weakness. 

“If I write a valuable article or op-ed on a particular political event, it will be less viral but more in-depth and relevant to return to and re-read months later,” Dachi explains. “But if I make a meme about this particular event, it might be relevant for a week or two, but after a while, the context and relevance of the meme is lost.”

Sandro Tabatadze, a political scientist and lecturer at Tbilisi State University, explains that the power of a meme is the sense of connection it creates. 

“When you find a meme, it's not the content itself that makes you laugh. It's the feeling of connection with the creator, realizing they had the same thoughts as you and humorously expressed them,” he says. “A meme is the ease of someone else getting a point across that you’ve already thought about. The whole idea of a meme is its simplicity, but this simplicity must be conveyed in a form that is perceptible to the masses or a particular group in both content and form.” 

In her 2013 book Memes in Digital Culture, Limor Shifman says memes gradually shape mindsets and behaviors on a macro level. She argues that they allow for both individual expression and communal connectivity, embodying the concept of "networked individualism."

Despite their positive features, memes can act as tools for propaganda and justifiers of certain policies or regimes. A study that compared two partially democratic states - Ukraine and Venezuela - found pro-government memes differed from those opposing the government. Pro-government memes used propaganda and scare tactics, relying on simple messages, national symbols, and strong emotions to create a positive image of the regime and demonize its opponents. They lacked humor or nuance compared to the more creative and critical anti-government memes. 

Political scientist Tabatadze notes that even as channels of knowledge, memes can be problematic. There is “a risk of using memes to manipulate and target political opponents or specific individuals,” he says, adding that despite their relevance to politics and society, memes have not been studied in Georgia. 

It is clear, however, that the power of memes has captivated all sides of Georgia’s polarized political landscape. While it is hard to find pro-government memes, anti-opposition memes are actively shared by specially created pages. These memes, often featuring photoshopped images of opposition leaders in exaggerated situations, are typically funded and advertised by anonymous sources. The result is a digital ecosystem where critical and propagandistic information coexists, creating the risk that misinformation and fake news can spread rapidly with simple visuals or humor.

To date, there is no clear understanding of how these sources, both genuine and propagandistic, shape the opinions of young Georgians. Yet, the country stands on the cusp of another election, where Gen Z, a generation heavily reliant on digital sources for information, will make up a significant portion of the electorate and there is no evidence-based insight on how these digital trends affect their voting behaviors.

Sandro is skeptical about seeing political memes as mobilizers of public opinion or discontent, however. “In Georgia, images alone are not enough to inspire people to become activists in reality. Sharing memes can lead to digital activism, such as hashtag campaigns. However, they also create numerous social media bubbles that are too diverse to be unified under a single group identity.”