Cancel Culture and social media Cancel culture is a term that only gained popularity in recent years. However, the concept of “cancelling” someone itself, has been around for a while. The term refers to the culture in which those who have been deemed to have spoken in a manner considered unacceptable are ostracized, shunned or boycotted. The subjects of this shunning are said to have been “cancelled.” Now while shunning those who have done something socially inappropriate is nothing new, the age of the internet has made it even more prevalent due to the fact that theoretically the entire world can find out this information about you and shun you. Especially if you happen to be a very public figure on social media.

Initially, cancel culture was first known as “call-out culture”, a term with more positive connotations that came into widespread use with the emergence of the #MeToo movement. The movement mainly encouraged women (and men as well) to call out their abusers on a public forum where their accusations could be heard. This was meant to help bring powerful individuals to justice who normally would have been able to escape a lot of scrutiny due to the positions they held. CEOs, managers and directors were some of the people called out and a lot of them ended up losing their jobs due to these allegations. Members of the public would express their distaste for the individuals’ actions and threaten to boycott whatever institution they worked for unless action was taken. Social media helped boost the voices of marginalized people in this case. Over time, call-out culture slowly changed to cancel culture, a term with more negative connotations that gained popularity in 2019. Cancel culture is most often used to signify that society will hold individuals that display offensive conduct accountabIe. While it is considered by many to be a good idea that seeks to help marginalized and less powerful people get justice, it has many critics. Some of these critics include former US presidents Donald J. Trump and Barack H. Obama and Pope Francis. Trump compared cancel culture to totalitarianism saying that it is a political weapon used to punish dissenters. Obama warned against it saying that people who do good things have flaws. Pope Francis believes that it is a form of ideological colonization that leaves no room for freedom of expression. Many people share these sentiments. And many have wondered whether anything can truly be fair in the court of public opinion. Some fear that false allegations may be used to unfairly kick someone out of their position by manipulating public opinion. This coupled with the prevalence of misinformation on social media seems to be a valid concern. That being said, we live in unprecedented times where people all around the world have access to each other at the push of a button. Public opinion can easily be swayed and it seems like cancel culture may be here to stay with us, whether it is a net positive or negative for society.