D isinformation is getting an upgrade. A primary tool of disinformation warfare has been the simple meme: an image, a video, or text shared on social  media that conveys a particular thought or feeling (Sprout Social, undated). 

Russia used memes to target the 2016 U.S. election (DiResta et al., 2019);  China used memes to target protesters in Hong Kong (Wong, Shepherd, and  Liu, 2019); and those seeking to question the efficacy of vaccines for coronavirus  disease 2019 used memes as a favorite tool (Wasike, 2022; Helmus et al., 2020). 

By many accounts, memes, as well as other common and seemingly old-fashioned  disinformation tools such as fake news webpages and stories and strident Facebook  posts have successfully undermined confidence in U.S. elections (Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, 2021), sown division in the American electorate  (Posard et al., 2020), and increased the adoption of conspiracy theories (Center for  Countering Digital Hate, 2021; Marcellino et al., 2021).