Investigative journalists are increasingly analyzing “memetic drift”—the process by which a meme’s meaning shifts unpredictably as it is recirculated and remixed. A harmless cartoon or Bollywood reference can be systematically hijacked by radical groups until it becomes a recognized symbol for hate speech.
The Bharat Media Association highlights that media professionals must track these shifting visual vocabularies. Understanding how adversaries capture and weaponize cultural debris is crucial for identifying covert radicalization networks operating in plain sight on social media.
