Canonizing online activism: Memetic iconography in the North Atlantic Fella Organization

Memes are iconic digital artefacts that acquire meaning through their production and circulation among the digitally mediated publics. This visual essay presents an iconographic exploration of the North Atlantic Fella Organization (NAFO) – a vernacular online collective engaged in ridiculing Russian disinformation and rallying support for Ukraine’s defence and recovery efforts. We approach memes as a visual interface between the user and various subgroups within and outside the community. Drawing on a combination of autoethnographic, visual semiotic and computational methods, we demonstrate how memes perform three key functions within the online community: representing the self, maintaining social relations within the group and articulating the group’s values and commitment to its members and the broader public. In doing so, they can be understood as an extension of social and cultural practices surrounding religious iconography. Going beyond short-lived or self-centred engagement, memes constitute a rich yet flexible medium to mobilize social media users in significant international crises such as wars.