From funny stickers to bullying tools

Stickers are those funny pictures created with the goal of brightening and enhancing communication in social networks and which serve as instant messengers, as well as helping in conveying emotions and facilitating the conveying of meanings. However, nowadays they have often become an instrument of ridicule and bullying.

Cartoon stickers of cats and dogs were quickly supplemented with images of quite real people: actors and singers, athletes, politicians and bloggers. Then the unthinkable began.

Realizing the scale of the opportunities, users began to create stickers for everyone who comes to their mind or catches under a hot hand: neighbors or classmates, colleagues, relatives and just random people.

And although for many, a sticker about a famous or familiar person is just a funny joke, for some people it is not at all a laughing matter. In particular for those of whom a meme was made.

Would you be pleased if a photo of your father was used as an illustration for a sarcastic caption? But what if a picture of your mother, accidentally caught in the frame of a popular video, spreads through the phones of millions in the form of a meme with a funny caption?

And that is exactly what is happening now. All these people, whose photographs became the basis for creating stickers, are someone’s relatives and friends. They may not be laughing at all.

One sticker may cause one’s life to break forever. Man has turned into a walking Internet meme - a joke, an anecdote. And no amount of excuses will help him. Stopping this process, withdrawing the sticker from circulation, or forcing all people to stop using it is almost impossible.

Unfotunately, this is the case when the introduction of the latest technologies is not accompanied by an explanation of ethical norms and rules for their use.

Neither of us wants to be the subject of constant jokes. But when a person becomes one without his will and consent, this is tantamount to mockery and violence against a person, because you trample on his honor and dignity.

Most recently, the well-known blogger Hasbulla Magomedov announced a ban on the use of stickers bearing his image. “Brothers, who use my stickers in social networks. I told you that you would be responsible in the next world for this. I did not give you the go-ahead for this,” Hasbik wrote on his page on a social network.

People take fame and popularity for granted. In fact, this is often a misfortune about which no one will pity you. Therefore, do not think that you can do whatever you want with a photo of a star. Someone’s private photos are not in the public domain and no one has the right to make stickers out of them.

Imagine that you found a photo of a neighbor and, having added a mustache or a funny hairstyle to him, enlarged his ears, added a funny inscription, and pasted the photo on the notice board at the entrance to his home. You think this is funny. But the neighbor is unlikely to be happy. And though only residents of one residential entrance may see your original collage, then the sticker can become popular among millions of people for many years to come.

Using a photo of a person as a sticker without their permission is like gossip or slander behind their back.

Abu Huraira (may God be pleased with him) narrates that someone asked, “O Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), what is slander (ghiba)?” He replied, “It is to mention about your brother that which he detests.” Another question followed, “O Messenger of God, what if that which is mentioned of him should actually be in him?” The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) replied, “If what you say about him is true, then you have backbitten him, but if it is not true then you have slandered him.” (Narrated by Muslim, At-Tirmidhi).

Imam an-Nawawi, commenting on this hadith, says that slander is one of the most disgusting deeds and, moreover, the most common. The hadith refers to the case when you say something about your brother that he would not like to hear. These words can refer to his body, religion, worldly affairs, his soul, appearance, property, children, parents, wife, servant, clothes, gait, movements, etc. This may be a reference to his carefree gaiety or gloom, or something else regarding him. And it does not matter whether you said it, wrote it or showed it with your eyes, hand, head, etc. In short, everything by means of which you point out to another person any flaw of your brother (or sister in faith) is forbidden slander.

This also includes mimicking and depicting someone in order to show him in an unattractive way. (“Tuhfat al-Ahwazi”)

Another saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) states: “Slander is worse than adultery.” He was asked, “How (slander can be worse than adultery)?” The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) replied, “A person may commit adultery and God accepts his repentance, but God does not forgive backbiting until the person whom he backbit forgives him.” (Narrated by Al-Bayhaqi, At-Tabarani).