Facebook Split Memes

About

Facebook Split Memes refers to the practice of separating memes into two equal components on Facebook, so that the top panel of the meme is a video and the bottom panel is a still image. This is typically seen on Facebook meme pages, who seem to use the technique to exploit Facebook's algorithms.

Origin

In 2018, reports of Facebook's algorithm change prompted meme accounts to begin favoring video over still images. On February 24th, 2018, The Daily Beast^[1] published a report about "Facebook hackers" exploiting this video favoritism by posting images as video (example below, left). The article quotes Nick Cicero, the founder of video analytics company Delmodo, who said, "Facebook’s algorithm heavily favors video content. We have seen shorter videos, particularly the ones that spark discussion, performing better.”

Several months later, the algorithm began detecting videos that little or no movement in them, cuasing meme page owners to being taking popular memes, cutting them in half and posting the top half as a video.

Examples of the phenomenon date back as early as April 2018. On May 2nd, the Facebook page "The Meaning Of Life" posted a split meme that reads, "How many women on here can honestly say they loved a man for who he was and not just for what he had?"

Spread

On May 16th, Redditor^[3] WhiteCrowWolf posted "All the recent memes I’ve seen have been split between two different pictures where the first half will be a pic on top and the second part will be a pic on the bottom in a way where it initially looks like a single picture with a horizontal line through the middle. Did Facebook update how they detect stuff like that? I’ve also noticed less video memes."

The following day, on May 17th, 2018, in a post by Redditor ^[2] in the /r/NoStupidQuestions subreddit. In the post, the user shared an example (shown below, right) and asked, "As you can see in this screen shot. A meme that could totally suffice as just a picture, is not only spilt in half in the middle, but turned into a video. Can anyone explain this phenomenon? It’s happening everywhere. I’m sure the split means more clicks or something. But why the video?"

On May 29th, a Facebook^[4] page mocking the format, "Only the Bottom Half of Shitty Split Memes," launched. The page takes the bottom half of these memes, the still image, and posts them without the context of the top half (examples below).

Several media outlets covered the practice, including Mashable. ^[5]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References