British Film Institute Preserves 400+ Internet Memes in New Digital Archive

The British Film Institute (BFI) has archived over 400 online videos spanning 30 years of internet culture, including the iconic 'Charlie Bit My Finger' clip, which has 888 million views since 2007 and sold as an NFT for $761,000 in 2021. Curated by Will Swinburne and Kristina Tarasova, the collection preserves memes, early vlogs, tutorials, and viral content from platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch. All videos were created by British creators but reached global audiences. The BFI acquired original files from creators, often retrieving them from old hard drives and memory cards. Each video is stored in triplicate: two copies on tapes in robot-operated libraries and a third in a separate archive 50 miles away for disaster protection. The project highlights the fragility of digital culture, referencing the loss of data from Myspace and Vine. The BFI aims to diversify creator voices and transform copyright approaches for future archiving.