“That is Just Fucked Up, I Think I’ll Be Leaving Now”: Coded Language, Hateful Humor, and Plausible Deniability in Dark Memes on Facebook

The mainstreaming of dark memes — memes that weaponize human suffering for entertainment — signals a troubling shift in how society responds to crime and tragedy online. Examining dark memes on Facebook, we draw on cultural criminology to analyze their coded visual and linguistic strategies for evading moderation. Our data reveal a paradox: rather than relying on anonymity, users engage with hateful content under real identities using deliberately ambiguous “multi-frequency dog-whistles.” Integrating rational choice theory, Cohen’s subcultural theory, Vigil’s gang linguistics, and Katz’s moral transgression framework, we show how dark meme engagement fosters belonging through shared transgression. This synthesis provides a comprehensive understanding of dark memes as a criminological phenomenon that operates at the intersection of individual motivation, subcultural dynamics, and platform architecture.