The word "meme" has existed long before it was popularized by internet culture, but the internet usage does serve to illustrate the idea. A meme is something of cultural significance conveys an idea. To use the internet specific ones: You see bad luck brian, you know it's something unfortunate. You see foul bachelor frog you know it's something gross. These are memetic messages. Though meaningless outside of cultural context, the images are so loaded with cultural significance that seeing them makes us think of a certain thing.
Well, the foundation has somehow found a way to make certain memetic messages that are potent enough to not just evoke thoughts or feelings but actually kill someone. The image itself triggers some fatal reaction in human viewers. Authorized viewers can be "inoculated" so the memetic kill agent doesn't affect them. How all of this is accomplished is a mystery, but it may be based on something that was originally anomalous but was put to use by the foundation after they researched it enough to understand it.
