JulieArE.Sibala1
ChristineBellaL.Pelegrino1
MaureenD.Aguisando1
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University of the Immaculate Conception Julie Ar E. Sibala1*, Christine Bella L. Pelegrino1,
Maureen D. Aguisando1
1 University of the Immaculate Conception
ABSTRACT
Cancel culture, originating in the digital realm and social media, presents challenges for individuals, particularly internet users and celebrities. Research has delved into this phenomenon, defining it and highlighting specific cases of individuals facing cancellation. There has been less focus on understanding the perspectives and personal experiences of those engaging in canceling others. In a qualitative phenomenological study, we examine cancel culture through the eyes of the participants involved. We uncover practices and motivations for participating in cancel culture through in-depth interviews with five participants. The findings reveal that they utilize social media tools for categorization and withdraw support, canceling individuals based on conflicting political views, inappropriate behavior, and the misuse of influence. We reveal the viewpoints of social media users on canceling personalities, touching on themes like seeking accountability, impacting careers, and the ambiguity of intentions. These findings offer avenues for further research to enhance comprehension of cancel culture and its impact on freedom of speech in today's digital age.
Keywords:
cancel culture
social media
standpoint theory
digital activism
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Introduction
Voicing out her transphobic beliefs made the Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling one of the most prominently “canceled” individuals. Even entertainers like Kanye West and Scarlet Johansson have faced public backlash due to their offensive statements. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s misogynist language has pushed people to cancel all his social media pages. Their downfalls all resulted from Cancel Culture, an emerging phenomenon from the internet. Hill (2021) emphasized that canceling is a metaphor that means efforts to stop following the canceled person or organization’s social media page; to refuse participation in activities that generate wealth for the person or organization such as streaming their music or buying their products; or to challenge the person’s ideas by commenting directly on the page or in a separate post. In addition to that, cancel culture has been known as partially responsible for the reputational loss of many celebrity figures.
According to Velasco (2020), the act of canceling someone is one of those spontaneous collective practices initiated by social media users, without consideration for its possible ramifications. He added that the culture of cancellation has become part and parcel of the vernacular of digital culture, primarily targeted against public figures who break the loose norms of social acceptability. Furthermore, cancel culture has been defined in numerous ways. Clark (2020) details the act of canceling as a form of “expression of agency,” whereby an individual withdraws their attention, presence, time, and money from someone or something “whose values, (in) action, or speech are so offensive”. Norris (2020) on the other hand, describes it “as attempts to ostracize someone for violating social norms
The practice of cancel culture typically initiates within the digital or online space like social media, but the consequences perpetuate the canceled individual's personal lives. For example, if a personality shares harmful thoughts that is homophobic, racist, etc., using their social media platforms, other users collect more evidence for redistribution and use that against them. Burmah (2021) stated that users share evidence amongst their networks containing additional context, such as support for reprimand to ensure that the perpetrator is accountable for rectifying the dissemination of harmful discourse. This practice can include expressing outrage in their posts and sharing raunchy memes to encourage others to engage in different forms of harassment which can be considered as part of cancel culture. In addition to that, Charles (2020) detailed some of these problematic after-effects such as mass unfollow, rapture of career relations, doxing or releasing private information online without consent, and could even lead to taking their own life.
The study of Nguyen (2021) entitled: Exploring Cancel Culture and the Distrust of YouTube Influencers, explored how individuals in different age groups view their role in cancel culture, specifically on YouTube. Her research highlighted the case of James Charles and Tati Westbrook, two famous YouTube influencers who fought on the internet and got canceled after exposing each other. Most participants in the said study do not believe that cancel culture has a beneficial aspect on the platform but believe that it can be appropriate in some many cases.
Meanwhile, Velasco (2020) examined in his study entitled, Virtual Collective Consciousness and the Emergence of Cultural as Ideological Purging, the culture of cancellation in today’s social media environment. He focused on the case of Cat Arambulo-Antonio, a celebrity who was canceled on social media because of her inappropriate remarks towards the public. He found out that in the Philippines, cancel culture has become more demonstrable on social media and that there seems to be no push back against this form of online social movement. His study shows that this phenomenon is gaining strength since it has become an apparatus for the modification of online behavior of the social media users.
In line with the aforementioned information, cancel culture, a phenomenon that emerged from the digital world and social media, has imposed problems and issues affecting people especially the netizens and famous personalities. There have been studies exploring this, finding its definition, and talking about specific cases of those who are being canceled. However there has not been much emphasis on knowing the side and personal experiences of those who are canceling and participating in the said matter. Having to learn about this side of cancel culture will help us understand and explore the roots as to why this phenomenon really happens. There is a need to dive into the insights of such a group of people, to discover more information regarding the said subject in the lens of not those being canceled but those who are canceling. Moreover, knowing that social media is a platform used by everybody daily, there is a need to study the reason to cancel because it has been a practice that many have participated in, especially these days and yet many still don’t understand it. With that being said, there is an urgency to conduct a study that unravels the standpoints of the netizens on canceling personalities.
In relation to communication, this research will help identify how social media users, through communicating their opinions and using their freedom of expression, participate in this process and understand how social media platforms cultivate this practice. We focused on identifying their motivations and reasons for canceling and determining their insights regarding cancel culture. The data that were gathered and interpreted will be helpful for people to learn more about the topic and understand the implications of the study. Therewith, the results of this paper will be published and made available for public consumption in a journal under the College of Arts and Humanities and to be presented in some research conventions.
Research Questions
1.1. How do social media users participate in cancel culture?
2.2. What are their insights and standpoints on canceling personalities?
Theoretical Lens
This research is anchored to the Standpoint Theory originated from the work of a famous German Philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. The theory assumes that people’s experiences, knowledge, and opinions are shaped by the social groups to which they belong (Marleen, 2012). A part of the theory’s core concept is to understand the perspective of the members belonging to marginalized sections (Bowell, 2014). This theory was utilized to explain cancel culture through the perspective of those who have experienced participating in the said phenomenon. This was useful in exploring the practices they do during the process and identifying their reasons in doing so. Importantly, this theory was useful for us to understand their standpoints and perceptions about it.
Methods
In conducting this research, we used a phenomenological design of qualitative research methods, utilizing the individual online in-depth interview approach. Sutton (2015) highlighted that qualitative research can help researchers access the thoughts and feelings of research participants, enabling the development of an understanding of the meaning that people ascribe to their experiences. Moreover, Austin (2015) stated that doing qualitative research is about putting oneself in another person's shoes and seeing the world from that person's perspective. Therefore, this approach is suitable for our study since we dealt with our target participants' personal experiences and opinions.
Furthermore, we used online in-depth interviews to gather the various standpoints and practices of the netizens in cancel culture.
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Boyce and Neale (2006) explained that in-depth interviewing is a qualitative research technique involving intensive individual interviews with a few participants. Moreover, it is one of the most efficient and effective methods of collecting primary data.
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To identify the five (5) people who would qualify for our research, we presented a pre-survey questionnaire to the target participants containing questions in line with our inclusion criteria. This was used to determine and confirm that they participated in cancel culture and had been active in their social media accounts, specifically on Twitter, and thus met the requirements to be our participant.
For us to gather qualitative data that will support our chosen study, the following steps and procedures have been applied for the efficient and successful collection of data.
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Firstly, we have presented our research to the Research and Ethics Committee (REC) for approval to conduct our study. Moreover, all the information and insights that they provided were encrypted and stored in an online drive, which the researchers only have access to. Then, data analysis followed.
The data, which were based on the answers given by the selected participants, was collected and organized with the aid of a table chart. We meticulously and extensively analyzed the answers gathered from the in-depth interviews. The analysis of the gathered data was patterned to the steps of Creswell (2013) method of data analysis.
Review of Literature
The Freedom of Speech and Expression and Social Media
Freedom of speech and expression protects the minority in speaking for themselves and sharing their opinions, from the majority and oppression, and it is crucial to democracy.
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According to Coghlan (2020), free speech and expression is the freedom to ‘speak what we feel, not what we ought to say, it axiomatically includes provocative, heretical, and unwelcome speech. He added that it promotes the autonomy and self-fulfillment of the individual and the wider culture. However, Freedom of speech and expression is a complex right. Neshapriyan (2018) even said that freedom of speech and expression is not absolute and carries with it special duties and responsibilities, therefore it may be subject to certain restrictions provided by law.
The Definition and Origins of Cancel Culture
Cancel Culture is a topic that is talked about all around the world. Articles on cancel culture have been increasing in the New York Times, NPR, and smaller news outlets like Vox and even on local news and print. It now has dedicated, lengthy entries in Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Wikipedia - What it means to get 'canceled,' 2021; Cancel culture 2020, and even former president Barrack Obama commented publicly on cancel culture and its hold on young activists (Rueb & Taylor 2020). Within the turbulent past few years, the idea that a person can be “canceled” — in other words, culturally blocked from having a prominent public platform or career — has become a polarizing topic of debate (Romano, 2020). Cancel culture has transitioned from being a shocking and isolated phenomenon to becoming a daily social interaction in the past year.
Cancel Culture in Social Media
Burmah (2021) stated that some people weaponize cancel culture as a dogmatic means of indoctrination to subjugate those who disagree. This means that this phenomenon leaves much room for negativity. This includes the spread of out-of-context information and mass bullying. Cancel culture and social media interaction can be understood as conveying or communicating the consciousness of the movement’s activity and intent of ideologically purging the public information space and the communication sphere (Simons, 2021).
Reasons and Motivation to “Cancel”
Martinez (2021) said that Cancel culture was developed as people flocked to social platforms to find communities to join; almost anyone who is familiar with this term would consider it a social media trend that is popular to participate in. He also added that users behind a screen feel more emboldened to say things they otherwise may not in person, which can lead to toxic behaviors and harmful outcomes to those that are the target of cancellation. Psychologist Pamela Paresky stated that “the human brain’s concept of community makes us start to see strangers on the internet like neighbors, and if we think they do something we think is wrong, we don’t like to associate with them anymore (Dodgson, 2019).
Cancel Culture in Business
Historically, brands have stayed out of politics and social issues for good reason because taking sides can alienate a large chunk of their customer base. According to Bakhtiari (2020), the consumers of today are more informed and empowered than before. If brands don’t stick to or violate social norms, consumers possess the knowledge, determination, and platform to cancel them out. Luca & Zervas (2016) said that consumers can immediately use online platforms and propagate information and encourage other people on social media to cancel out and start boycott measures against organizations or individuals if found out that the product or company violated their views and beliefs. Coates (2019) also states that cancel culture is a practice analogous to a boycott or strike, where consumers or workers withdraw or withhold their support or labor as a response to powerful people or organizations’ abuse of power or morally questionable behavior. Today, many businesses and companies have suffered from the consequences they’ve faced due cancel culture.
Cancel Culture in Politics
Cancel Culture has lasting consequences for afflicted individuals caused by initial defamatory exposure that include being fired, public shaming, and public sharing of personal information that often led to ostracization (Saint-Louis, 2021). The idea of canceling began as a tool for marginalized communities to assert their values against public figures who retained power and authority even after committing wrongdoing (Romano, 2021). That is why personalities supporting such public figures are being canceled.
Cancel Culture in Entertainment
Social media have become a fundamental part of people’s daily lives. It has become a source of entertainment for many individuals, especially at the onset of the health crisis wherein most of the users coming from a distinct backgrounds take active participation in current social issues. Freberg et al (2018) emphasized that social media influencers such as celebrity idols, vloggers, and bloggers are the latest generation of independent third-party brand ambassadors who utilize blogs, tweets, and other forms of social media to shape audience perceptions. Palomares et al. (2022) stated social media have become a fundamental part of people's daily lives, wherein users from distinct backgrounds take active participation regarding current social issues.
Results & Discussion
The Social Media Users’
Participation in Cancel Culture
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Table 1
The Social Media Users’ Participation in Cancel Culture
Essential Themes | Core Ideas |
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Using Categorization Tools on Social Media to Cancel Personalities | Posting using the #Cancel and then the name of the canceled personality. |
Retweeting posts of other netizens about canceling certain personalities. |
Withdrawing Full Support | Blocking and unfollowing all the social media accounts. |
Boycotting products and services they endorse. |
Not supporting or watching their shows. |
Contradicting Political views | Opposite perspective or outlook regarding politics. |
Endorsing and supporting corrupt politicians. |
Showing Inappropriate Actions and Behaviors | Canceling personalities if they have unethical and irresponsible actions or behaviors. |
Netizens believe that their moral compass and principles can’t accept the social media behaviors of the canceled personalities. |
Taking Advantage of Influence and Power | Using their influence and their positions to abuse ordinary people. |
Spreading misinformation and disinformation. |
Using Categorization Tools on Social Media to Cancel Personalities. We have determined that netizens utilize social media to express their opinions regarding certain personalities and to also exchange information with others. They have specifically utilized the tools present in Twitter like tweeting, retweeting, and the use of hashtags to participate in Cancel Culture. This study supports the statement made by Velasco (2020), saying that social media has not only become a prism for information exchange, it also paved the way for the rise of digital participatory cultures and social movements and it has become a contested site for competing forms of knowledge, culture, and ideology. Cancel culture is truly one of the phenomena of participatory culture and social movement on the internet, as it has allowed netizens to cancel a personality through collective action by sharing their thoughts through the platform. That is why we agree with the statement of Yap (2022), stating that due to the popularity of social media platforms and heightened media coverage such as Twitter among users, posts attempting to cancel and distract social and financial support for an individual can easily be disseminated across the internet. Social media has had a big impact on cancel culture as it has enabled people to spread information and communicate with others making cancellation easy and fast.
Withdrawing Full Support. The result of this study reveals that social media users participated in the cancel culture by withdrawing their full support towards the canceled personality. This includes unsubscribing, unfollowing, and boycotting their endorsed products and services. This result supported the study of Bromwich (2018) that describes the digital phenomenon of being canceled as “total disinvestment in something or anything”. The results show that the netizens decided to not engage with any of the posts and contents of the canceled personality on any social platforms as well as to any of its public activities and projects. This is coined with the statement of Clark (2020) who emphasized that the act of canceling is a form of “expression of agency,” whereby an individual withdraws their attention, presence, time, and money from someone or something. This, therefore, symbolizes the start of the cancellation. As people decide to withdraw their support from the personality, they begin to lose interest in anything that they produce and endorse.
Contradicting Political views. This study determined that most social media users are likelier to cancel a personality with different and contradicting political views. This serves as evidence of the study of Palmer (2020), which concluded that participants mostly canceled public figures because they share different political views from them, or they morally do not agree with the public figures' decisions. The social media users openly disclosed that personalities, politicians, and even ordinary individuals with opposing views and endorsing public figures who are problematic will likely be canceled. This is because they believe that they can't support people who do not have the same mindset as them, especially regarding politics. They also do not want to be associated with personalities who support and endorse politicians who are problematic and are involved in many issues, specifically corruption.
Showing Inappropriate Actions and Behaviors. The result of this study identified that social media users cancel personalities who have publicly demonstrated inappropriate actions and have displayed unethical behaviors that have caused offense to other people. Especially when they post and share content that is out of the moral borders, such as posting inappropriate content and showing behaviors that are not socially acceptable, e.g., sexism, racism, etc. This result supports the claim of Romano (2021), who emphasized the emergence of "cancel culture," and the concept of canceling someone coincides with a familiar pattern where a celebrity or other public figure does or says something offensive in the form of distributing jokes, words, and actions that may harm anyone in the mainstream media. The intention of social media users in canceling such personalities is to teach them a lesson that will help them realize that the actions that were committed must not happen again. Because of their influence, celebrities or public figures should be responsible for how they present themselves in public. That is why if they have committed such actions, then they should be canceled.
Taking Advantage of Influence and Power. One of the themes distinguished in this study is that social media users commonly cancel personalities based on how they handle their power to influence and their positions. As public personalities, such people have an influence over ordinary citizens, thus giving them the power to sway their opinions and beliefs. This serves as one of the motivations of netizens about cancel culture. If one personality uses his or her influence and position incorrectly, such as abuse of power and influence and misinformation, then they are subject to cancellation. This study is a piece of evidence to the study of Coates (2019) that states that cancel culture is a practice analogous to a boycott or strike, where consumers or workers withdraw or withhold their support or labor as a response to powerful people or organizations' abuse of power or morally questionable behavior. As public figures and personalities abuse power over the people, cancel culture then occurs. Netizens believe that these kinds of personalities should be canceled so that they will not be able to use what they have toward the public.
The Standpoints and Insights of
Social Media users in Canceling
Personalities
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Table 2
The Standpoints and Insights of Social Media users in Canceling Personalities
Essential Themes | Core Ideas |
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Seeking Accountability | Gives the ordinary citizen the power to check and balance. |
Citizens have the obligation in the society to make it just and organize through cancel culture. |
Cancel Culture is used to raise awareness on certain social issues. |
Affecting Careers | Canceled personalities have no redemption. |
Canceled personalities who committed grave crimes or actions can’t be forgiven. |
Ambiguity of Purpose | Cancel Culture can victimize people because of wrong accusations. |
Canceling personalities is rewarding because it is done for a greater good. |
Seeking Accountability. Cancel culture is not just an internet or social media phenomenon that tries to call out a particular personality. In this study, it was discovered that cancel culture seeks accountability, whereas social media users wanted to punish and impose consequences for the wrongful and unacceptable actions committed by the canceled personalities. This result is coined with the study of Haskell (2021), who emphasizes that cancel culture serves as an alternative form of seeking justice. cancellations happen in order to punish someone for acts that the masses on Twitter deem unacceptable. This also supports the study of Morgan (2021), which states that participants want personalities to be held accountable for their actions; they ask for transparency and fight for those underrepresented minority populations. The social media users strongly expressed that being a public figure or celebrity does not give them an exemption to be canceled. The moment they start to weaponize their social platforms and utilize them beyond their purpose and would cause damage to human life, therefore justice needs to be served and that is to cancel them out. Moreover, Social media users believe that cancel culture has become more than the withdrawal of support, it can also be utilized to campaign for social change. This study supports the study of Bouvier and Machin (2021), which concluded that cancel culture is a social mobilization that can be associated with activism. Netizens could take advantage of cancel culture to raise awareness of societal issues being neglected.
Affecting Careers. The findings of this study determined that when a certain personality has been canceled, their careers, including their reputation and image, will be affected. Social media users firmly believe that it would be difficult for the canceled personalities to bounce back on their course, and it will be a struggle for them to redeem their name and fame after being canceled. This is evidenced by the idea of Krolik & Hill (2021), who explained that If reputation can be considered a form of currency, then exploiting the conditions of canceled culture can generate a series of profits or losses—depending on one’s intent. With the power of cancel culture, a personality involved in such a scandal would either be more famous for the wrong reasons, or their fame would spiral down. It would be hard for the canceled personality to regain its image and reputation in its original state. As they have done something that is deemed inappropriate by many, they will receive a lot of backlash and hate. Moreover, people will start to withdraw their support and will eventually lose interest in the activities of the canceled personality. Meanwhile, efforts to apologize for what the public figure has done just to stop the cancellation would be futile because social media users believe it will be hard to forgive them. This result supports the claim of Bouvier and Machin (2021), who found that perceived inauthenticity can lead to more shaming on social media, and therefore, the odds of repairing the reputation of the guilty party decreases. If the canceled personality apologizes insincerely, people will eventually see through them and even damage their name. With this, we can consider being subject to cancellation as walking on thin ice. People would be watching the personalities' actions, and the state of their careers will depend on their authenticity and willingness to change.
Ambiguity of Purpose. Just like any other phenomenon, social media users believe that cancel culture does not only do good but can also harm an individual. The finding of this study shows that netizens think of cancel culture as ambiguous, having to say that its purpose can have more than one interpretation. This study supports the statement of Luu (2019) saying that while it can be problematic, certainly very messy, and even judgmental, it is cancel culture that also gives power to minority groups that historically have not had the luxury of speaking out. We need to note that as much as it can shine a light on severe injustices that have been accepted for so long, it can also be powerfully misused. Despite it being able to help empower marginalized groups and enable them to speak against those who are violating social norms, it can still be weaponized. Because of its power, cancel culture can also be taken advantage of and eventually victimize people rather than help them. The ramifications of cancel culture can become uncontrollable. Hence, there is a need to have a better understanding of the phenomenon and to be responsible before we dive into participating in it.
Conclusion
In the course of this study, we have found out the ways that social media users participate in cancel culture. We have also determined the reasons and motivations why they choose to cancel certain personalities. All the data that we have gathered and analyzed can be used as additional literature to understand cancel culture in a deeper sense. Moreover, to help see another perspective of cancel culture, we have unraveled the netizens' standpoints regarding the said matter. As researchers, this also gave us a lot of things to ponder about cancel culture and we are now able to make sense of how such a phenomenon exists. Cancel culture is a digital movement that has been a trend for the past years, and with this study, we were able to shed more light on it.
As people continue to utilize the tools that social media has given them, cancel culture emerges as a collective action that has resulted in changes in how we enjoy our freedom of speech and expression. Henceforth, the personalities, public, and educational institutions will be able to know how and why culture happens and how social media has enabled people to participate in it. Communication students should be knowledgeable of the environment and nature of social media; this will help them know how communication has evolved and how it can transform how people connect and come together in the digital space.