Caturday: Why people shared cat photos in wake of Barcelona attack

When authorities in Spain asked that social media users refrain from sharing photos from the scenes of this week’s horrific terror attacks as the investigation was ongoing, the internet obliged, and shared cat photos in solidarity instead.

People grieve in different ways. This week, as people around the world struggled to cope with news of more horrifying terror attacks in two different cities in Spain (not to mention the domestic terrorism in Charlottesville), a strange story involving cat photos emerged. As Time reports, following the first deadly attack, where a car plowed into a crowd in Barcelona on Thursday, the Spanish authorities put out a message on social media asking t

hat people not share any photos of the scene, out of respect to the victims and their families.

Instead, the always imaginative people of social media launched a sort of mini campaign of solidarity, choosing to share photos of cats and tagging #Barcelona instead. The idea was not only to offer images of love and affection in a time of great suffering, but to throw off the perpetrators of these heinous acts. As the Telegraph explained, the cat photos were a form of “hashtag flooding,” or overloading social media with images so that if one of the terrorists checked for updates on the police investigation or intelligence following the attacks, they’d be met with a flood of cat photos instead. It’s kind of brilliant, when you think about it.

Even those without cats got in on the action:

This actually isn’t the first time social media users have turned to cute animal photos in the face of terrorism. After the attacks in Brussels, Belgium in 2015, a similar tactic was used.

Next: Riz Ahmed addresses the Charlottesville attacks in ‘Sour Times’

Obviously the horrible events of this week are examples of the worst of humanity, but when there is such darkness, it’s always moving when people gravitate toward the light. Cat photos for the win.