Is cancel culture justice or mob behaviour?

Have you ever written a comment under a tiktok post? Have you ever liked a post criticizing celebrities? well then you have probably engaged with a canceling campaign. Yet these campaigns were not formed through social media, the first cancel campaign targeted John Lennon when he claimed the Beatles were more famous than Jesus.

Yet is this cancel culture or just mob behaviour?

Do people actually have a substantive reason to hate these people or is it because they lack a sense of community and can easily gain comradeship at the expense of others.

Cancel culture can have positive outcomes. For example this culture exposed Harvey Weinstein allowing victims of his harassment to come forward. This triggered the #MeToo Movement across social media allowing women who have experienced sexual harassment or abuse to come forward.

However this canceled culture can transition into mob behavior. After tweets surfaced of JK Rowling's anti trans and gender identity views her home address was leaked and death threats were repeatedly sent to her. Furthermore, Mark Chapman was motivated to murder John Lennon due to his comment that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus, this case highlights how ‘cancel culture’ can cause significant transgression.

Nevertheless there is a trend in this ‘cannibalistic maw’ that mainly targets women. Women are more likely to face scrutiny for their character and appearance. The double standards of cancel culture is evident , after the 2004 Super Bowl incident Janet Jackson was subject to intense scrutiny and backlash yet Justin Timberlake continually enjoyed the success of his performance. This is further evident in the canceling of Amber Heard during her extremely public divorce proceedings and the defamation trial that followed. Many original supporters of Johnny Depp have now withdrawn support by unlinking his instagram post celebrating his usa trial win as it becomes clear that both sides were at fault and that many were ‘manipulated’ by his media advantages to push his legal narrative. Women are held to higher standards and many are cited as ‘Karens’ intending to shame women leading to intense viral harassment due to their ‘unacceptable’ behaviour.

Furthermore, unusually women are the most likely perpetrators to carry out these cancel campaigns against women. Sabrina Carpenter was recently under attack during a Coachella performance when an Arab yodeller was yodelling during her performance and her comment invited backlash forcing her to apologise.

These "mean girl" style harassment campaigns are created with smear campaigns similar to ones that occur in schools. So could this cancel culture be a form of bullying? This mob behaviour follows the same traits yet is accepted as many celebrities regardless of gender are subject to smear campaigns which not only harm their career but can have devastating effect on their lives. For example the smear campaign against Taylor Swift with her private jet usage yet many other celebrities such as Travis Scott and Elon Musk are not subject to the same scrutiny.

This ‘cancel culture’ has been studied by many institutions on how it mirrors herd behaviour when many supporters don't even grasp what they are supporting. Steven Mintz, professor emeritus at California Polytechnic State University claims: “Some members of the canceling group join in for fear of being canceled themselves. People should be able to speak out or remain silent on the issues without fear of retribution. This supports the idea that cancel culture is more mob behaviour than actual intent for positive change.

Cancel culture is a double-edged sword that operates as both a tool for social justice and a vehicle for mob behavior. While it empowers marginalized groups to hold significant figures accountable, it frequently devolves into context-blind punishment, ultimately doing little to foster genuine societal rehabilitation or growth.