ISIS Crappy Collage Grand Prix
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About
ISIS Crappy Collage Grand Prix (Japanese: ISISクソコラグランプリ) is a Japanese photoshop meme and hashtag campaign featuring edited screen captures from an Islamic State (IS) video featuring two Japanese hostages.
Origin
On January 20th, 2015, Islamic State released a new video on YouTube in which a masked member threatens to kill Japanese hostages Kenji Goto Jogo and Haruna Yukawa within 72 hours unless Japan pays $200 million in ransom.[1]
In response, some Japanese Twitter users didn't call on the government or express anger at the terrorist acts, but began posting parody images mocking the IS video around that day's evening. One of the earliest instances made by @AKID_0831 had retweeted 7,700 times and got over 5,000 favorites within first 7 hours.[2]
Background: Japan's "self-responsibility" thought
Unlike Euro-American countries, this non-christianity country doesn't have considerable Muslim or Islamic immigrants issues and both Japan and Japan's Self Defense Force in UN's peacekeeping operations haven't come under Islamic terrorism attack. Because of this, Japanese people tend to lack a sense of reality to the Middle East issues and risk of terrorism. Half of their optimistic behavior in this online craze comes from this social background.
Other half is their "self-responsibility" thought cultivated by several hostage crisis happened in Iraq or Afghanistan in 2000s. Some of Japanese victims in these incidents were not journalists, but peace/political activists or young travelers who didn't have any supportable causes to go to the Middle East with ignoring the government's adjurations. On the web, heavy criticisms blaming their faults under the slogan "self-responsibility" (自己責任, Jiko Sekinin) happened[3][4], and even dead victims had a few of severe responses.[5]
Therefore, hostages like Haruna Yukawa in this case tend to be hard to raise sympathy amongst people, especially anonymous internet users, and instead they're forced to become a subject of online mockery.
Spread
Just a few hours after the photoshop meme was launched, Twitter users began posting the accompanying hashtag "#ISISCrappyCollageGrandPrix" (#ISISクソコラグランプリ).[6] Some of Twitter users provoked IS by sending those photos to Twitter accounts assumed to be IS members one, and drew these responses.[7]
In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the hashtag campaign, including Kotaku,[8] Sun News,[9] ChinaSmack,[10] Washington Post,[11] and Al Jazeera.[12]
Various Examples
Twitter Feed
Editor's note: This Twitter Feed may include explicit contents.
Search Interest
External References
[1] NYTimes.com – Japan Weighs Ransom in Islamic State Threat to Kill Hostages / 01-20-2015
[2] Twitter – あきお: 一 転 攻 勢 / 01-20-2015 (Deleted)
[3] The Washington Post – Japan and hostages: A nagging feeling that it’s their fault / 01-20-2015
[4] Asahi Shimbun – Film on ex-Japanese hostages in Iraq explores ‘personal responsibility / 12-21-2013
[5] ABC Lateline – Mixed reaction to Japanese beheading in Iraq / 11-01-2004
[6] Twitter – Search results for the hashtag #ISISクソコラグランプリ
[7] The Japan Times – Islamic State's social media tactics mocked by Japanese Twitter users / 01-21-2015
[8] Kotaku – Japanese Twitter Users Stand Up to ISIS with…a Photoshop Meme / 01-21-2015
[9] Sun News – Twitter users in Japan mock ISIS / 01-21-2015
[10] ChinaSmack – Japanese Netizens Photoshop ISIS / 01-21-2015
[11] The Washington Post – The subtle message behind a Japanese meme mocking the Islamic State
[12] Al Jazeera – Japanese Tweeters mock ISIL hostage video / 01-21-2015
