He Will Not Divide Us
He Will Not Divide Us (HWNDU) was a 24-hour livestream art project launched by actor Shia LaBeouf and artists Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner on January 20, 2017, during Donald Trump's inauguration. Meant to run the full four years of Trump's first term, the stream instead became a running battle with 4chan's /pol/ board, which repeatedly disrupted, stole, and tracked down the installation across multiple continents.
Overview
He Will Not Divide Us, often shortened to HWNDU, started as an anti-Trump performance art project and turned into one of the internet's strangest games of hide and seek. The setup was blunt: a wall-mounted camera, an open invitation for anyone to step up and repeat the phrase 'he will not divide us' into the lens, and a livestream broadcasting the results around the clock1.
Everything shifted the moment 4chan's /pol/ board treated the installation as a live target. Users showed up in person to chant counter-slogans, hold Pepe the Frog signs, and blast 'Shadilay' at the wall, while the artists scrambled to keep the stream alive by moving it to new cities and eventually just a flag in the sky4. The trolling was so effective that each relocation drew its own news cycle about how 4chan had found the camera this time.
How It Spread
How to Use This Meme
HWNDU is not really a reusable template, it is a specific 2017 event, but the phrase 'he will not divide us' itself became a rally-and-mock line online. Supporters chanted it earnestly at the camera, while /pol/ users flooded the same stream to say it ironically over Pepe imagery and pro-Trump signs. Modern references typically point back to the livestream saga rather than proposing the slogan as a serious rallying cry.
Frequently Asked Questions
References (4)
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