It seemed to have started as a joke but has progressed into a social media trend that cannot be ended. 

Cancel culture: a modern internet phenomenon where a person is ejected from influence or fame by questionable actions.

In the past year, more and more influencers on social media platforms such as Tiktok, Instagram, and YouTube have been getting “canceled” because of a mistake they made either in the past or present day. These influencers are in the public eye–the pressure of being perfect is suffocating. 

No matter who somebody is or how they were brought up, they cannot dodge mistakes. They are inevitable. With cancel culture being such a prominent feature of social media nowadays, it has silenced creators’ creativity and demoted their growth as a human.

People on the internet also have a way of twisting words into something completely out of context. 

Charli D’Amelio is the biggest TikToker on the app. At only sixteen-years-old, she accumulated over 100 million followers on TikTok just by doing fifteen-second dances. Lately, she has been under fire by her fans and other users on the app because of a clip from the YouTube series “Dinner with the D’Amelio’s.” For each episode, the D’Amelio family invites a special guest over for dinner and conversation. On an episode posted in mid-November, the special guest they invited was James Charles, a talented and popular makeup artist on YouTube. 

Whilst eating intricate meals prepared by their chef, Aaron May, Charli makes a comment that made Twitter and TikTok lose their minds.

“I wish I had more time,” Charli started. “Because imagine if I hit a hundred [million] a year after hitting a [million].” 

Furious, vehement, enraged, and all the feelings in between were expressed by people on social media. People viewed Charli as “self-centered” and “egotistical” just because of a goal she had set. Twitter and TikTok weren’t just mad at Charli. Her older sister, Dixie, was being dramatic only because the chef had prepared snails. 

Dixie was not a fan of the snails—I don’t blame her—but her emotions expressed gave the viewers an “ungrateful” vibe. Immediately, fans were quick to try and “cancel” the two for being “spoiled brats”; they were also saying how the sisters didn’t deserve the platform they have.

Since that viral clip, the D’Amelio’s haven’t been the same. I am not seeing as much of the two on my For You Page or in the headlines of Snapchat articles like I used to. 

“Canceling” somebody isn’t a once a month type of event; it is more of an event that occurs every couple of days. When a creator is being “canceled,” most go into this protective/quiet period in fear of making the situation worse, but not all creators leave.

Shane Dawson was a huge YouTuber. He had a successful career in making content and even had a makeup collab with Morphe. During his earlier times on the platform, he made racist posts and jokes that resurfaced in the summer of 2020.

Although Dawson acknowledged that the jokes were wrong and said sorry, ex-fans now view him as racist rather than somebody who made mistakes in the past and grew tremendously. It hurt seeing those resurfaced clips as a long-time fan, but I refused to give in to the negative mindset that cancel culture is. 

Dawson announced he wanted to make a movie, but the internet hasn’t heard anything from him in seven months. No matter what projects he has planned for the future, it will always be tainted with fans’ negative responses. 

Cancel culture has completely ruined Shane’s career and reputation. 

Fan bases and regular users of social media are ruining it for everyone. When I log onto Instagram, I see people continually participating in this toxic mentality–stopping influencers on social media from growing. 

Social media platforms were never the happiest place on the internet. Now, with cancel culture trending more than ever, it is killing influencer’s reputations.