After gathering close to 10,000 followers on Instagram, Nanyang Junior College (NYJC) student-run meme page @nyjcmememachine shut down abruptly last Sunday. All because an individual believed that a shitpost — intentional and sometimes aggressive low-quality content, i.e. posting shittily — about the September 11 attacks was serious enough to be deemed a threat to national security.
The Straits Times reported that the page admins (identified as a group of NYJC students) have since apologized after they came under police probe, apparently over the post that was interpreted as one that intended to promote terrorism in Singapore. NYJC also noted to ST that the students have been counseled. A new Instagram page was set up with an apology post.
The controversial meme that came under scrutiny was part of a glut of 9/11 memes that arrived on the internet (beyond just @nyjcmememachine) on the 17th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York City. The page’s shitpost took on the spoofed format of Colin Kaepernick’s Nike ad, but instead of the American athlete, it used a picture of Al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden alongside the burning World Trade Center towers. Overlaid on the image was the text: “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing 3,000 lives and two steel towers”.
A problematic meme that’s way too spicy beyond good taste? Sure. But on the scale of the entire internet and other terrible memes produced about 9/11 during the 17-year span since the heinous acts of terror, @nyjcmememachine’s shitpost is considerably tame. Even if it still is offensive and inappropriate.
The individual who reported the page to the police turned out to be someone who’s not even an NYJC student. ST reported that a 23-year-old undergraduate lodged the police report on grounds that it posed a threat to national security.
“We just need one person to be wayward and be self-radicalized to pose a threat to our security,” he said to ST. “It is not too far-fetched a possibility, seeing news reports all this while”.
“I want you kids to learn the hard way”
What the report missed out is the fact that dozens of other JC students and followers of local school meme pages thought the undergraduate went too far in getting the authorities involved, as much as they disagreed with the posting of the 9/11 shitpost.
The person who lodged the report explained his side of the story on the Sayat.me anonymous feedback service on Hwa Chong Junior College’s own student-run meme page @tkk.jc. The dude sure sounds like a riot at parties.
