It’s undeniable that the meme has become a staple of society in 2016 from humble beginnings probably less than a decade ago, so it’s kind of unbelievable that the Spanish government are actually attempting to ban them under a new law.

Featured Image VIA 

The law was proposed by Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy to Congress today, seeking to place restrictions on, “spreading images that infringe the honour of a person.” It was proposed as an amendment to unpopular Citizen Security Law which was introduced in 2015 and is known as the gag law, as it effectively does just that by placing curbs on public protests, social media commentaries and disrespecting the police. Sounds like Spain is living under a real authoritarian regime – I seriously had no idea.

Anyway, this law to ban memes probably isn’t going to get past Congress (Rajoy’s party only holds 137 of the 350 available seats) but as you almost certainly should have predicted, the very idea of it was relentlessly trolled on Twitter in the form of memes. Gotta love the internet:

Con la prohibición de los memes, que pretende el PP, ¿sería ilegal este fotomontaje que me curré hace años? #SinMemesNoHayDemocracia pic.twitter.com/6tgRhiuYUP

— Toño Fraguas ♀︎ (@antoniofraguas) November 8, 2016

Ahora el PP quiere prohibir los memes y considerarlos delito. Rajoy, te pasas #SinMemesNoHayDemocracia pic.twitter.com/OSxvIJQ5Gb

— Código Nuevo (@CodigoNuevo) November 8, 2016

Rajoy quiere que no haya más imágenes como esta, coartar nuestra libertad de expresión. #SinMemesNoHayDemocracia pic.twitter.com/3kQZlOGheu

— cagonros (@cagonros_) November 8, 2016

Yeah I’m not really sure what any of them say either but I’m positive they’re all absolutely lolz. In all seriousness though, can you imagine how terrible it would be if they managed to get away with banning memes? As if 2016 could get any shitter, right?

For more memes, check out the classic black people not amused by white people meme. How could we live without such humour in our lives again?