ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how memes serve as powerful tools of civic resistance during the war in Ukraine, focusing on their role in confronting Russian information disorder. It highlights the North Atlantic Fella Organization (NAFO), a global, decentralised online community that actively uses humour, satire, and visual culture to disrupt propaganda, spread accurate information, and lift morale. NAFO members shape digital narratives and rally international support for Ukraine’s sovereignty. This chapter shows how digital culture fuels activism, builds solidarity, and challenges dominant media frames. Using a mixed-methods approach, it uncovers what drives individuals to join NAFO and how their actions bypass traditional media to mobilise civic engagement. Memes emerge not just as entertainment, but as strategic, accessible weapons in the information war. By ridiculing falsehoods, exposing manipulation, and spreading hope, NAFO’s meme-makers turn digital platforms into battlegrounds for truth and resistance. This chapter argues that meme-based activism is redefining civic resistance, enabling ordinary people to fight back in the digital age, and proving that culture, humour, and community can be as impactful as conventional weapons in times of war.
