Why ‘Cancel Culture’ Is Here to Stay

Technology enables new mechanisms of social accountability. Are we ready?

The “many-to-many” paradigm of social media, combined with an instantaneous “new visibility,” have given rise to new mechanisms of communication. They are here whether we want them or not. Illustrations courtesy of the author

A couple of weeks ago, I went online and encountered the kind of news that no one ever wants to read. A prominent Biblical scholar and Oxford professor, Jan Joosten, had been arrested for downloading some 28,000 images and videos documenting the sexual exploitation of children, a charge to which he has confessed. Throughout the rest of the day, many members of a large professional organization of Biblical scholars took to social media to express their disappointment and disgust. The consensus among these individuals was that Joosten should be immediately dismissed from his positions of leadership within that professional organization, and that a definitive stance should be taken against the exploitation of children. It sounds like a simple request, and yet, given that organization’s gentle handling of another member convicted of similar charges in the past, it could not be taken for granted that ties with Joosten would be cut. And so a group of scholars quickly mobilized in order to pressure the organization to take action. A statement came — some considered it too little too late — but at the very least, a stance was taken. Joosten had been, for all intents and purposes, cancelled by his professional peers.

The story of Joosten highlights the possibilities of “cancellation” at its most morally unambiguous. Power tends to protect the empowered at the expense of the relatively disempowered, and “cancellation” is a strategy by which individuals with limited tools at their disposal band together in order to make a dent in that protective fortress. (Like much internet slang, the word “cancel” is appropriated from Black Twitter, where it originated as a mechanism for demanding accountability from people in positions of relative power.)

That said, the very thing that makes “cancellation” a potentially powerful tactic for challenging the Harvey Weinsteins (or the Jan Joostens) of the world also makes it a potentially dangerous weapon when wielded in bad faith, such as when the president uses social media to accuse people of heinous crimes for the purpose of inciting outrage. In many ways, Trump is a paragon of “cancel culture.” Before he was president, he was on a TV show where it was literally…