Memes: Innocent fun or internet bullying?

The internet meme is ubiquitous these days. The photos paired with funny captions have come to permeate the online communication of the younger generation, and it is nearly impossible to predict which ones will go viral.

But there is more to memes than just good fun. Social media companies are starting to realize many viral images have real victims with no good recourse when someone uses their images for a little mischief.

Kyra Pringle, a South Carolina mother whose 2-year-old daughter has a rare genetic disorder, found this out first hand when she posted a photo of her daughter’s birthday party on her Facebook page. Someone stole the photo and shared it thousands of times. The meme, which was sometimes digitally altered, compared the little girl to a monster or alien because of rare facial features caused by her illness.

“This is bullying. This is not right. She’s fought for her life since she got here,” Pringle told NBC affiliate WCBD-TV. “She’s not a monster. She’s not fake. She’s real. She’s here.”

Unfortunately, such stories are not uncommon. The digital age makes it all too easy for family photos, school pictures, and private images to be ripped out of context, cruelly captioned by strangers, and circulated on the internet with no way for the original subject to stop it.

“When one of these mobs fixes on you, it’s like a Lovecraftian horror,” said James Grimmelmann, a professor at the University of Maryland who specializes in internet law. “Only madness awaits. It can be beyond the power of individuals to do a lot about it.”

The phenomenon sparks many important questions. Most companies like Facebook and Google have community standards about the use of photos and images. Facebook just recently outlined a new set of rules on the topic. But since most of the memes do not include outright threats or display the same patterns as stalking and harassment, they can fail to attract the companies’ attention.

The problem is especially tricky for companies operating in the United States. The First Amendment provides broad protections for speech and expression, but how those protections apply in the internet age is still up for debate in the courts and in public opinion.

“It’s not that there isn’t an ethical problem, and a real problem as a society we should wrestle with, but law just wouldn’t intervene and the First Amendment would say we don’t stop it,” said Danielle Keats Citron, a research professor of law at the University of Maryland and author of the book Hate Crimes in Cyberspace.

A new movement in Europe supporting the “right to be forgotten,” has gained traction with recent court decisions. The European Court of Justice ruled Google could be required to remove old and irrelevant information in certain cases, but its application has been limited so far.

Of course, not all meme stories are tragic. When Luke Hostetler was younger, an acquaintance shot a photo of him and his homeschool group. Then 10-year-old Hostetler struck a pose and forgot about it.

In 2013, a friend forwarded him a front-page Buzzfeed list of “People You Wish You Knew in Real Life.” There, in the list, was the childhood photo, with Hostetler circled in red and the caption, “Werk it.”

The meme was never as viral as some others, but it circulated enough that he was occasionally introduced and known as “werk it kid” among acquaintances.

“The meme hasn’t changed my life in a drastic way, and I’m pretty happy about that,” Hostetler said, admitting he found it funny. “I like attention, but not too much of it.”

Even though memes often focus on the flaws of another person, instead of just being funny, Hostetler doesn’t think the government should limit human expression or creativity. To a certain extent, internet meme usage has to be regulated by the people who choose to look at or create them, he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.