By Kendyl Brower
Everyone makes mistakes and should be held accountable for their actions… but how does accountability lead to address leaks and death threats? Cancel culture attempts to end a celebrity or influencer’s career, revoking their public platform. In most cases, “canceling” responds to influencers committing social transgressions, like using slurs or sharing offensive opinions. As soon as a video surfaces, a hashtag quickly forms: #(insert name here) isoverparty. Those who see this immediately hop on the bandwagon, regardless of knowing the situation. Moreover, many people will dig deep into social media to find controversial material to expose celebs, bringing light to past mistakes which in most cases, the celebrity has grown out of.
Recently, Tik Tok stars have been exposed one by one, like Lil Huddy and Emmuhlu saying the N-word or Mattia Polibio being homophobic. However, viewers pick and choose who to cancel. Lil Huddy and Mattia Polibio still remain extremely popular and loved creators, despite their derogatory language. Not everyone gets the same treatment; reality TV host Caroline Flack received mass amounts of hate mail following allegations of sexual harassment. Flack took her own life in light of the hate. Cancel culture has become more than unfollowing, it has become another form of severe cyberbullying. Additionally, cancel culture creates an idea that one cannot grow from mistakes and must be shunned from society. Many fans idolize stars so much so that they expect influencers to be flawless, as they scrutinize celebrities under a microscope. It is easy to forget that superstars are human when commenting through a screen, and death threats through Twitter are as horrible as in person.
Rather than leaking private information and sending death threats, we should simply unfollow or ignore creators who make poor decisions. Cancel culture is beyond toxic, as it attempts to completely remove people from society. Mistakes could be an educational moment to foster growth, however it has become more of an excuse to spread hatred.