Everyday a celebrity or digital influencer is canceled on the internet. Campaigns propose that these people be "nullified" and lose fans and followers. But, after all, what is the culture of cancellation? The program Caminhos da Reportagem this Sunday (12) reprises an episode that discusses and explains this subject – which has even been the subject of the essay test at the National High School Exam (Enem).
According to digital marketing specialist Elis Monteiro, the cancellation is "a coordinated movement most of the time by people who are on the internet and gather together to hate someone, that is, they decide that that person doesn't deserve to exist in the digital world ”.
The movement started in 2017 by American actresses against sexual harassment and abuse, #metoo - me too, in Portuguese - was considered a milestone for the culture of cancellation. The action gained momentum on social networks and proposed the exposure and boycott of abs and harassers. In a short time it was replicated around the world.
A survey published in 2020 by the digital advertising agency Mutato analyzed more than 8,000 comments posted on the internet. The document divided the online actions into three: the first would be the boycott, which is usually related to politics, brands, people or institutions in positions of power. It is hardly effective. The second would be the ban, or wrong close, which would be an informal movement that reaches celebrities and anonymous people, but is punctual. And finally, the virtual lynching and cancellation. A good part of the interviewed interviewed, 79% of them, is against the cancellation.
In a year, from 2019 to 2020, the word cancellation was mentioned almost 20,000 times on the internet, according to the survey. Last year, it was mentioned more than 60 thousand times, which represents a growth of more than 200%.
In many cases, cancellation crosses digital boundaries and affects offline life as well.
Youtuber Viih Tube says she was attacked in the street after being canceled on the internet because of a video. "The first time I left home after a lot I experienced indoors…difficulty eating, getting up, I just cried. I was attacked by a man in the street I didn't even know, because he saw me for the cancellation, it was super annoyed with the video and literally assaulted me…it was a surreal thing that I experienced the first time I wanted to step outside the house”, he says.
Viih Tube's colleague on a reality show , singer Karol Conká also had her actions condemned on the internet and was canceled. She told, in an interview with digital influencer Spartakus, that in addition to losing followers, she received death threats and saw contracts being cancelled. Despite claiming that she was wrong, the singer still suffers from the effects of the cancellation.
"Me, recognizing my mistake, it seems I'm lying, it seems I'm not worthy of understanding or acceptance. So I think: all these years I've been working, I've been exposing myself, then I had a mistake, I made a big mistake of not controlling my emotions, not controlling my anxiety, not knowing how to deal under pressure. Then it's as if I didn't need me anymore. I felt disposable," he says.
Comics artist Camila Padilha was criticized in the networks for a racist comment, despite itting the mistake - Caminhos da Reportagem /TV Brasil
But not only celebrities are canceled. Comic artist Camila Padilha says that a racist comment she made ended up on the internet.
In the same period, she had won a public notice for the production of an animated film. The main character was black, which further increased internet attacks.
"The fact that I want to talk about racism from a black perspective, I think it's wrong of me because I'm white, I don't have that perspective and my perspective of talking about racism should be from the perspective of a white person," he says. .
Despite publicly itting the mistake, there was no way out: Camila was cancelled. He lost followers and even his job because of exposure on social media. She says: "I lost the movie, I lost my job, everything I had built like that... I had to get away from my social networks because I couldn't speak..."
For the coordinator of the Center for Studies in Ethics and Politics at the Federal University of Pernambuco and Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Frankfurt, Filipe Campello, the culture of cancellation can have devastating effects. “Cancellation is an unforgiving logic. She doesn't want to educate. Sometimes something you said a long time ago and that was found, rescued in the nets, that there seems to say who that person is today. It throws away this possibility that we have to change”, he ponders.
Vivian Seixas talks about the virtual cancellation of her father, Raul Seixas Caminhos da Reportagem / TV Brasill
And no one is safe from being cancelled. From a statue, like the one of Christopher Columbus that was toppled in Colombia, to a national rock idol, like Raul Seixas.
Vivian Seixas is Raul's daughter and says that a post on the social network of a cartoon of the rocker wearing a mask, because of the covid-19 pandemic, made people say: "There was a fan who was super angry". There were several comments on the networks: "Raul would never wear a muzzle, Raul would never wear a mask. And who is managing this channel?", recalls Vivian.
Commenting on this episode, she emphasizes: "Only if Raul was crazy, right? Because my father had diabetes, my father suffered from many diseases, and only if he was crazy not to wear a mask." Finally, she concludes by saying that it is necessary to be very careful with what is written on social media.
The Paths of Reporting Who Cancels the Cancellation? airs today, at 8pm, on TV Brasil.
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Text translated using artificial intelligence.
