Memes have been front and center in the internet’s playground for well over two decades, evolving into a cultural force that spills into and consumes every corner of the digital ecosystem. These cultural artifacts, first meriting museum immortality in Hong Kong’s K11 Art Mall, chronicle and communicate everything from historic events and political movements to pop culture, fashion, and everyday discourse. What once may have been dismissed as internet ephemera is now a powerful tool for spreading ideologies and defining how we collectively process the world.
While far-right meme propaganda has historically centered on anti-immigration, Islamophobia, and antisemitism, a growing trend has emerged: the portrayal of South Asians as a perceived cultural and economic threat.
This evolutionary ability of the format was first hinted at by British biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976, when he coined the term “meme” in The Selfish Gene. He described it as a self-replicating unit of culture, mutating and spreading much like a gene through natural selection. In recent years, far-right groups—first in the USA and Canada, and now in Europe—have cracked this evolutionary code, weaponizing memes to embed extremist ideas within mainstream discourse.
The Rise of Anti-South Asian Hate in Digital Spaces
A recent study tracking hate speech against South Asians found a 122% increase in slurs on 4chan, a 251% rise on Gab, and a staggering 1,720% increase on Telegram between January 2023 and January 2024. These hate-filled narratives, largely fueled by the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, portray Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis as agents of demographic and economic displacement, blaming them for job losses, “white erasure,” and political instability.
In Germany, where the far-right’s influence is surging, anti-Indian sentiment has long existed in political rhetoric. In the early 2000s, Christian Democrat politician Jürgen Rüttgers infamously coined the election slogan Kinder Statt Inder (Children Before Indians) to oppose skilled migration from India. The slogan, despite the backlash it received, continues to inspire captions for anti-Indian memes on X. More recently, Der Spiegel, a leading German publication, also faced criticism in 2023 for publishing a caricature of Indian population growth, depicting a chaotic, overpopulated train filled with Indians juxtaposed against a sleek, modern Chinese train. This imagery mirrors digital depictions of South Asians in far-right meme culture, where phrases like “delete India” and “India is not for the weak” have flooded comment sections under memes that portray South Asians as dirty, incompetent, or unwelcome invaders.
For instance, in the wake of anti-immigrant populism steering political discourse in Western democracies, Pepe The Frog, a once innocuous image claimed by the far-right, emerged as a hate symbol targeting immigrants of color. This internationally-used template often depicted Pepe blocking foreigners from entering a country through a fence or plastered with anti-Semitic or racist claims. Across Europe, where anti-muslim sentiments have been on the rise, the “unwelcomed foreigners” were often depicted as unruly-looking Muslims. In 2017, the creator of Pepe The Frog was prompted to “kill off” the meme in an attempt to stop far-right groups from co-opting his image. The far-right meme culture, however, does not exist in a vacuum; it thrives within carefully curated ecosystems designed to target and radicalize specific demographics.
Meme Warfare and Online Radicalisation
According to Dr. Vincent Knopp, a researcher at the Hessian University of Public Management and Security (HöMS), the effectiveness of far-right memes lies in their ability to operate on multiple levels. What appears as harmless humor to the average internet user carries insidious meaning for those already steeped in far-right ideology. He describes this dual-layered communication as “dog whistling,” ensuring memes resonate with different audiences while evading content moderation.
Dr. Knopp identifies seven key mechanisms at play in far-right meme propaganda: Insinuation allows extremist messaging to remain vague enough to evade legal consequences, while (re)framing, he says, reshapes political events to fit far-right narratives. Provocation and retortion distort opponents’ arguments, often baiting backlash to amplify far-right ideas. Personalization turns political discourse into a battle of individuals, either heroizing far-right figures or stigmatizing opponents. Immunization reinforces far-right ideologies as “common sense,” shutting down debate, while polarisation simplifies complex issues into an “us vs. them” mentality, eroding rational discourse.
Together, these tactics ensure that far-right memes are not just harmless jokes but weapons of ideological warfare that subtly shift public perception. When asked about the extent of the German far-right’s involvement in using memes as a tool for recruitment and propagating its political ideology, Dr. Knopp points to the German right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) former youth organization Junge Alternative (JA), which has been classified by Germany’s domestic intelligence service as a right-wing extremist group. “They (JA) have ‘meme lords’ within their association, who are told to create and propagate memes targeting specific communities,” he implies.
This understanding is imperative in times when the country that once vowed never to collaborate with extremists was seen joining hands with far-right AfD in the parliament to push for an anti-migration bill just weeks before the German federal elections. Dr. Knopp’s study further highlights how German far-right memes are used not only to dehumanize marginalized groups but also to erode trust in democratic institutions by depicting politicians, the press, and civil society actors as corrupt globalist puppets undermining German sovereignty.
Anti-Refugee Memes, Islamophobia and Real-World Violence
Although Dr. Knopp’s study is expansive, looking at approximately 60,000 German far-right memes, it does not single out South Asians as a monolith. He observes Muslims to be a specific target of the anti-immigration memes. Many South Asians—especially those of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin—are Muslim, making them frequent targets of Islamophobic memes that portray them as violent, oppressive, or culturally incompatible with Europe.
Far-right memes that depict Muslims as an existential threat to Western civilization fuel broader anti-South Asian sentiment, particularly in the context of Germany’s refugee debates. The portrayal of Muslim men as sexual predators—seen in memes exploiting high-profile cases like the 2015 New Year’s Eve assaults in Cologne—not only incites Islamophobia but also perpetuates racist stereotypes against South Asian men.
The threat of online radicalization is not new. Europe’s core institutions have repeatedly flagged it as a pressing security issue. The Council of Europe, the European Commission, Europol, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have all warned that digital ecosystems are accelerating extremist recruitment, with far-right groups using memes and social media as key tools. Yet, despite these warnings, radicalization continues to outpace regulation, manifesting in real-world violence.
In Altena, Germany, firefighter trainee Dirk Denkhaus attempted to set fire to a refugee group house after consuming far-right conspiracy theories on Facebook that falsely portrayed refugees as a threat. This case is not isolated; it is one of over 3,000 data points in a landmark study linking digital hate speech to racial violence.
As Germany braces for more sophisticated far-right propaganda, researchers highlight the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) as a dangerous accelerant. Dr. Knopp warns that AI-generated memes will allow the far-right to automate and personalize their messaging, producing highly targeted content that adapts in real-time to public discourse. AI tools can enhance meme virality, manipulate visual cues, and fine-tune dog whistles to make extremist content even harder to detect. This technological leap makes the far-right’s digital campaigns more scalable and effective, posing new challenges for democratic societies trying to combat radicalization.
Ironically, the far-right’s meme strategy aligns almost perfectly with Dr. Richard Dawkins’s original theory about memes—existing not as humorous internet jokes but as self-replicating cultural units that evolve and spread through natural selection. Just as biological evolution selects for genes that enhance survival, the digital ecosystem selects for memes that maximize engagement and influence. Far-right extremists have hacked this process, ensuring their memes mutate, spread, and embed themselves in mainstream discourse, shaping political reality in ways that traditional propaganda never could.
What began as an online humor-driven subculture has become a powerful force reshaping politics, fueling hate, and, in extreme cases, inciting violence. As AI accelerates this transformation, the fight against far-right radicalization is no longer just about moderating content—it’s about understanding how digital ecosystems are engineering belief itself.