Everybody loves internet memes - except maybe the people in them.
While it may be funny to repost that viral photo or video to your social media, often
times those pictures were taken out of context, or even without the subject's permission.
Innocent folks who find themselves the subject of an internet meme have been subjected to
harassment, public ridicule, and even death threats.
Here's a look at some memes that destroyed lives.
Alex from Target
In 2014, a 16-year-old Target cashier from Texas had his photo posted on twitter without
his knowledge.
In an instant, hashtag alexfromtarget became a viral trend, and at first, it all seemed
great for Alex Lee, who landed hundreds of thousands of followers and even booked a guest
appearance on Ellen.
"Do you feel obligated like you have to Tweet things out like you're a big celebrity?"
"I feel so pressured, like they're waiting..."
But haters gonna hate, and soon enough, the dark side of becoming a meme became all too
apparent.
In an interview with the New York Times, Alex said he was afraid to leave his house thanks
to a barrage of online abuse, which included threats against his life.
Eventually, the police had to get involved after doxxers posted his family's bank details,
phone records, and social security numbers online.
Yikes!
Wentworth Miller's weight gain
Celebrities are certainly not immune to the ways of the meme-makers, and quite often they're
more than happy to play along.
Even Sad Keanu earned a seal of approval from the man himself.
But sometimes things are a little more complicated, like when Prison Break actor Wentworth Miller
found himself the subject of a meme posted by LAD Bible mocking his weight gain in March
2016.
In a lengthy post about the meme, Miller revealed that his weight gain was caused by severe
depression, and that he had been "suicidal" during the period the photo was taken.
He wrote that the first time he saw the meme, "it hurt to breathe."
But Miller refused to be ashamed of his mental health issues, and used the meme's popularity
as a platform to implore others suffering from depression to seek out help.
LAD Bible subsequently took the post down and issued a public apology to the actor.
Ashley before and after
Honesty and vulnerability are not always safe traits to reveal on the internet.
Just ask college student Ashley VanPevenage, who took before-and-after acne cover-up pictures
for a friend's Instagram account.
The internet reacted as it often does: with thoughtless, malicious cruelty, as thousands
of trolls attacked her appearance.
As more and more vicious memes began circulating, though, VanPevenage fought back, taking a
stand against internet bullying with a video encouraging people to be themselves.
"Once you feel beautiful in your natural skin and it doesn't matter what's on the outside of
your face, the only thing that matters is who you really are."
Preach!
Harambe
In 2017, a silverback gorilla named Harambe became the focus of viral memes for all the
wrong reasons when he was shot dead after a 4-year-old boy climbed a fence, crawled
through some bushes, and then fell into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo.
The tragic incident generated an outpouring of sadness and anger, but once the internet
got a hold of it and meme-ified the incident, things quickly turned ugly.
Among those targeted were the Cincinnati Zoo's staff, who were bombarded with Harambe memes
and hashtags, with zoo director Thane Maynard's twitter account even getting hacked a couple
times.
But the main target of harassment was the child's mother, who suffered a torrent of
harassment online for her perceived lack of remorse, including death threats, and even
attacks from Anonymous.
Even those who happened to share her name found themselves mistakenly targeted, while
an online petition calling for her to be held accountable received over 300,000 signatures.
#HasJustineLandedYet
During her journey from New York to South Africa in 2013, Justine Sacco tweeted out
some dumb, caustic, and apparently sarcastic tweets to her relatively meager 170 Twitter
followers before falling asleep for the rest of the flight.
While she slept, her tweets went viral thanks to Gawker and BuzzFeed, with the hashtag HasJustineLandedYet
trending.
By the time her plane landed, she had become the center of a media firestorm, receiving
thousands of angry tweets and death threats.
The staff of her hotel threatened to boycott, and she was fired from her job - which ironically
was a PR position at the internet and media conglomerate IAC
Though her terribly insensitive comments were justly condemned, there was also alarm by
many over just how easily internet outrage had spiraled into an international incident,
destroying a woman's life and reputation in a matter of hours.
Sacco's experience became a case study on the potentially dangerous power of internet
memes, with media outlets debating not just whether she deserved it, but whether anyone
deserves internet bullying regardless of how offensive their comments are.
For her part, Sacco apologized and explained that the tweet was meant as a satirical commentary
at how privileged white America is.
She told The New York Times Magazine,
"To me it was so insane of a comment for anyone to make.
I thought there was no way that anyone could possibly think it was literal…
Living in America puts us in a bit of a bubble when it comes to what is going on in the third
world.
I was making fun of that bubble."
In 2018, Sacco was rehired by IAC.
The internet barely noticed, though - they were too busy looking for their next meme.
Thanks for watching!
Click the Grunge icon to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Plus check out all this cool stuff we know you'll love, too!