Infectious Images: Viral Internet Content in the Democratic Republic of Congo

This paper explores how and why digital content is shared and moved into circulation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It describes how visual genres such as print cartoons and popular painting now overlap with digital viral videos and memes and highlights the potential for postcolonial political critique offered by online content. The findings suggest that the circulating economy of images sometimes represents a threat to structural power, but also to people themselves, since open channels of communication invite unsolicited content that is considered to be potentially contaminating. This discussion of online practices is informed by the spiritual cosmologies and local conceptions of virality gleaned from extensive in-person interviews. Specifically, this paper addresses some of the biological metaphors people evoke to express their perceived vulnerability or exposure to visual online content.