The rise on Instagram of “meme accounts” like @fuckjerry, which steal jokes, videos, and other content, is a platform failure Instagram refuses to acknowledge
The past few weeks have been rough for Elliot Tebele. Tebele is the morally compromised founder of Jerry Media … Tweets: @nymag , @carnage4life , and @joshconstine Tweets: @nymag : Instagram has done nothing to regulate accounts that follow a clear pattern of violating intellectual property rights. @bafeldman writes http://nymag.com/... Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : This article argues that Instagram should shut down accounts that post memes that weren't originally created by them. Imagine the nightmare such enforcement would create and how much of an overreach that would be. Media now in full on blame Zuck mode http://nymag.com/... Josh Constine / @joshconstine : Smart breakdown of the stolen memes situation, but as long as the accounts drive usage, I'd bet Instagram just lays low http://nymag.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Elliot Tebele's Jerry Media built @fuckjerry into one of Instagram's biggest meme accounts by reposting other people's jokes and videos, and New York Magazine's argument is that this only works because Instagram declines to treat a clear pattern of intellectual-property violations as an enforcement problem. Dare Obasanjo pushes back in the linked discussion: mass-policing who originally made a meme would be an enforcement nightmare and a real overreach.
The stakes are commercial, not just cultural. Influencer marketing on Instagram was reportedly growing fast enough to hit $265M in North American ad spend in Q1 2019 alone, meaning uncredited aggregation was being directly monetized through brand deals. And the biggest meme accounts had already been experimenting with going private as a follower-growth tactic, showing how sophisticated — and valuable — this ecosystem had become.
First-order effects
- Jerry Media and Tebele face direct reputational pressure, with the article framing the founder as 'morally compromised' and naming the business model itself — reposting without credit or licensing — as the problem.
- Instagram is put on the defensive: it must either defend non-enforcement against a documented pattern of IP violations or confront the moderation burden Obasanjo warns any serious crackdown would create.
Second-order effects
- Within months Instagram shifted from refusal to managed engagement — running purges that took down 142 meme accounts in July 2019 while simultaneously hiring a strategic partnerships manager focused specifically on meme accounts, effectively legitimizing the category it wouldn't police.
- Advertisers buying into the booming influencer market inherit the provenance risk: brand dollars flowing to aggregator accounts are now visibly exposed to the same theft accusations the article levels at Jerry Media.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, platforms converge on institutionalizing the meme economy rather than adjudicating authorship — partnerships and selective purges instead of rights enforcement — which entrenches aggregators over original creators.
- The economics also push the culture itself to migrate: multi-platform meme brands and independent Instagram influencers began investing heavily in TikTok's emerging meme scene, suggesting creator value flows toward whichever platform offers better terms for original work.
The trend: Instagram is moving from ignoring meme-account content theft to formalizing the meme economy through partnerships and episodic purges, leaving original-creator attribution structurally unresolved.