MEME culture normalises online harass-ment and silences the victims. Scroll through any WhatsApp group and you will find memes mocking someone’s appear-ance, humiliating a classmate, or shaming a stranger. When they go viral, and they often do, almost always you will find people laughing at them. That laughter is not harmless.

My research based on a survey of 144 social media users found that the more people treat meme-based harassment as humour, the less likely they are to report it. It is not how much harmful content people see that matters; it is how their social environment teaches them to feel about it.

Once we treat harassment as humour, we stop treating it as a problem worth reporting. The ‘it is just a joke’ defence is the engine of this problem. When harm-ful memes receive likes, laughing emojis and forwards, they send a social signal: this is acceptable.

Over time, that signal reshapes what feels normal and what feels worth acting on. Victims stay silent. Bystanders scroll past. The harassment continues.

Social reputation, family honour and community standing carry real weight. A meme that goes viral can damage someone’s prospects, relationships and sense of safety far beyond the screen. Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), 2016, covers such offenses, but most people never report because normalisation has already convinced them it is not serious enough.

The fix is not only legal. It is cultural. Challenge the ‘just a joke’ excuse in your own circles. Think before you forward any content. Reporting, in fact, takes seconds, and silence is always a choice.

Marrium Khan
Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2026