Who is cancelling?

Examining interest as a determining factor for participation in online public shaming

Resumo

In this paper, we intend to advance the debate about cancellations by examining who participates in a cancellation. By “participate,” we mean collaborate in any way, either with or without the direct intention to attack and shame the wrongdoer. The current literature points out the participation of subaltern counter publics (Clark, 2020), the state and the press (Trottier, 2018), content creators (Lewis and Christin, 2022), employers (Saint-Louis, 2021) and regular social media users (Trottier, 2018; Bouvier, 2020). However, there is no general explanation for theorizing and encompassing all potential participants in a cancellation. Considering cancellations as a form of rule enforcement based on shame, we use the concept of entrepreneurship (Becker 1963) as central to understanding cancellers as actors interested in the cancellation due to virtuous or opportunistic causes.