Belgium Needed Help. The Internet Gave Them Cat Memes. BUT IT WORKED!

By Will Stefanski

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Cats are being used in the strangest way: to fight terrorism!

After the recent Paris attacks, the Internet has been watching Europe with a close eye. There has been a filter people can apply their profile pictures on Facebook, there have been myriad articles written for the web, there have even been threats made by hacker groups to dismantle terrorist presences on Twitter. But Belgium takes the cake with the most adorable tactic to fighting back against terrorists threats: CAT MEMES!

Brussels-Lockdown1

Europe is rife with conflict in the wake of the November 13th attacks in Paris. A suspected gunman from these attacks was believed to be in Brussels on November 22. While the entire Belgian city was on lockdown, authorities asked citizens to not post about the movements of police and tactical units on social media. Authorities were afraid that it might alert the suspect to their whereabouts. Regardless of this plea, people couldn’t help but post about the lockdown using the hashtag #BrusselsLockdown.

This is when something amazing happened.

Savvy citizens of Brussels —as well as global Internet users— started posting cat memes using the same hashtag. Despite requests from the government, people were going to post about the lockdown anyways. Which is when the Internet community decided to dilute the hashtag.

By posting of hundreds of cat memes, the factual whereabouts of tactical units were buried under the cute, fluffy faces of kittens. And Brussels decided to have fun with it too, posting memes that poked fun at the suspected terrorist and helped alleviate the fears of their fellow Belgians. All in all, these cat memes turned a potentially terrifying situation into something that people could understand, something they could relate to, something that wasn’t so scary anymore.

Well done, Brussels!

Here are our favorite cat memes from the #BrusselsLockdown!

Translation: “The army at this time!”

Which is your favorite cat meme from #BrusselsLockdown?

Let us know in the comments!

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Will Stefanski
Will Stefanski is a left-handed bibliophile who now owns a cherry-red Schwinn Traveler III. On summer afternoons you can almost see his vermilion shadow passing you at great speeds.
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