At the risk of beating a not-dead, just-missing zebra, here’s another story about the story that won’t quit this week.
In case you’ve been off Facebook, X and nearly every other social media platform since last Sunday, an escaped zebra has been on the loose near North Bend, Wash. Four of the animals got out of a trailer that was headed to Montana, and one is still roaming around.
And based on internet posts relying on generative AI (like the image above) or Photoshop, the zebra could be grabbing a Dick’s burger, riding a ferry, assisting law enforcement, standing on the SR 520 bridge, hanging out with Bigfoot or tossing a fish at Pike Place Market.
Now one Seattle television station’s social team is saying enough already with the zebra memes.
The KOMO News #SoNorthwest Photography page posted a message to its 46,000 members Friday morning asking them to please stop sharing standalone zebra content. The page is intended as a place where photographers in the Pacific Northwest can submit weather-related photos to be featured on KOMO’s website, social channels or newscast.
The clutter of zebra memes was taking away from sunsets and mountain photos, apparently.
“We love the enthusiasm that everyone has had for the zebra story and have enjoyed laughing at the funny zebra photos,” the KOMO digital team wrote. “However, from now on, please post all zebra memes and any edited zebra photos as a comment on this thread. We will remove all other photoshopped or AI-created zebra-related content not posted in the comments.”
Considering all the ways we worry about deep fakes, misinformation, and how AI can be manipulated into delivering dangerous content, an endless stream of striped-horse memes certainly seems harmless.
And this week has definitely illustrated that just about every state agency or sports team with a social media intern and access to photo editing software has a sense of humor.
