Cancel Culture: Where we draw the line

I remember the underwhelming start of Night Owls Cinematics’ (NOC) cancellation in 2021. I first took notice of the cancellation when I came across a YouTube video shot by The Daily Ketchup. The video was titled The NOC Saga with its thumbnail being a cut out of a female with shoulder-length violet hair and a chubby male with a watermelon for a helmet. 

I remembered thinking that the news was going to be trending for the next week or so before it died down. However, no netizen in Singapore was prepared for the subsequent amount of dirt that was uncovered about the company which would eventually culminate in the complete and utter cancellation of NOC. 

That got me wondering, how far should we let cancel culture control the fates of social media influencers and media companies? Is cancelling a prominent figure a justifiable punishment for someone who just happened to make a mistake which was blown out of proportion in the media?

Source: Vox

Cancel culture has proven to enforce law and order in the media scene by holding organisations and influencers accountable for their actions. Taking the beginning of the NOC Saga as an example, netizens were upset as allegations of NOC’s cofounder Sylvia Chan verbally abusing her employees have been circulating online. According to Mothership, the screenshots of the verbal abuse were leaked by her own employees. Furthermore, a talent of NOC at the time, Samantha, was picked on by Sylvia in one of the screenshots. The article features Sylvia calling Samantha out with profanities and wanting an “exit strategy” for the employee indicating that she wants Samantha out of the company. 

Due to these social media allegations, NOC had to remove all their videos in October 2021. The allegations also led to the Singapore Police getting involved as they launched an investigation about unfair employment. In light of the bad publicity that NOC faced at the time, it caused a strain on their viewership and they eventually stopped posting videos on their channels all together. 

Hence, cancel culture not only holds online users accountable to their actions, it also potentially involves the police who have more authority to hold media companies accountable to their actions. 

Cancel culture is also helpful for fostering social change online. Citing one example, based on an issue that was brought up in 2020, Singaporean influencer Xia Xue was facing backlash from netizens for making racist and transphobic tweets in 2010. The backlash brought attention to the issue of racism and transphobia which sparked discussions about what was socially acceptable and what was not. As a result, this raised awareness towards several issues that were once overlooked. Hence, cancel culture can raise awareness about taboo topics and highlight the importance of them.  

Source: The Messenger

However, cancel culture could also promote Mob Mentality which could lead to severe consequences. Mob Mentality is the inclination of people to conform to a group‘s belief they belong to. For example, in 2020, according to CNA, there were allegations about Dee Kosh sexually harassing teenage boys circulating online. The online community in Singapore was very quick to accuse Dee Kosh such that on the day the allegations about him were made public, Dee Kosh had to post an Instagram story immediately to explain his side of the story. Although not all allegations made about Dee Kosh were true, netizens were very quick to condemn him which could also cause psychological harm to the accused. Hence, Mob Mentality swiftly condemns others without knowing the full truth causing severe damage to those being accused. 

Proponents also postulate that cancel culture undermines forgiveness where victims of cancel culture do not get a second chance. Using Dee Kosh as an example, in a video where he shared his story on Rumble, he mentioned that a group of boys surrounded him and started slamming him about sexually harassing teenage boys. 

However, there are influencers who have made comebacks despite being cancelled. An example citing Ryan Tan, the founder of Overkill. Despite being slammed by the media for the NOC Saga controversy, facing multiple lawsuits, and being on the verge of bankruptcy, he is still creating content on Youtube.  

In conclusion, there is a fine line that separates the pros and cons of cancel culture. However, I think that cancel culture is needed to hold influencers accountable. I believe some fear is needed to keep people in line, especially influencers, as they have some influence over others. Furthermore, it is shown that one can come back from being cancelled. Hence, maybe cancel culture can be used as a wake up call for those who are going down the wrong path.