Cancel Culture: Good or Bad?

 written by 10416 Lee Seohyun

Cancel culture is a social phenomenon where individuals, companies or celebrities get publicly criticized for their controversial statements or actions that are considered harmful, such as hate speech, discrimination and violation of the law. It usually occurs on social media, where sensitive information spreads quickly, and people are free to express their opinions.

J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, faced lots of boycotts and backlash from her fans, movie actors and fellow authors. This was after making transphobic comments on her X (formerly known as Twitter) account.

In Korea, cancel culture is what happened with the scandal surrounding Yu Young-Hyun, the former member of the indie rock band called Jannabi. He was accused of school bullying and traumatizing the victim. He soon left the group and sincerely apologized to the victim.

Thus, cancel culture can be a powerful tool for finding justice and making people accountable for their behavior. It also gives a voice to minority groups, allowing them to fight against injustice and discrimination toward them.

However, cancel culture has negative aspects as well. It is often considered as a new form of cyberbullying and witch hunt.

People who have become the target of cancel culture can suffer from anxiety and fear of being judged and criticized. These individuals barely get a chance for redemption since cancel culture is based on black-and-white manners. Things are worse if the information spread actually turns out to be a rumor.

A Canadian adult film actress by the name of August Ames committed suicide after facing severe harassment due to cancel culture. There was a rumor that she was homophobic, but she was actually bisexual. This shows how rumors and reckless cancel culture can destroy a person’s life.

Another concern regarding this culture is that it may violate people’s rights to free speech.

This is the idea that people should be able to express their thoughts and opinions freely. However, cancel culture can be used as a tool to silence people with different opinions.

Cancel culture is a double-edged sword. It is true that behaviors that are considered harmful should be criticized. However, cancel culture usually leads to rushed judgments and unnecessary public shaming. Therefore, we should focus more on raising accountability in the cancel culture rather than its punishment and reputation-destroying aspect.