Analysis of The Politics of 'Cancel Culture' in The Philippines

With just 280 characters, a Twitter user can start a trend, tell a story, and ignite a movement. As we wrap up a year filled with economic and leadership crises during the span of a pandemic, we take a look at how social media augmented an assortment of issues, with some arguably more worth your penny than others. So, what are the debates and discussions that sent the Philippine social media community humming?

With the ongoing pandemic constantly changing our lifestyles, it becomes draining to watch the news or check for updates on social media regarding COVID-19. This pandemic not only has brought more attention to underlying issues deeply rooted in our society, but it also exposed several leaders, businesses, and even celebrities for grave misconduct. The degree of misconduct these people have committed could lead to their lives being canceled by the online mob.

Before probing into it further, it is substantial to understand what it means for one to get canceled. According to Dictionary.com, cancel culture “refers to the popular practice of withdrawing support for public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive.” In the most extreme cases, the people getting canceled saw an end to their careers, as a result. This phenomenon emerged in 2019 when many incidents of celebrities committed crimes or problematic behaviors on social media.

Though cancel culture is a phenomenon that is quite widespread, especially in our online communities, we must remember not to mistake it for call-out culture. Call-out culture is the process wherein people point out (or “call out”) when someone has done something that you consider inexcusable. This differs from cancel culture because cancel culture takes an extra step after calling someone out, which is to figuratively remove a person from society, hence the use of the term “cancel”.

While call-out culture does prove that an individual should face the consequences of their wrongdoings and be held accountable for their actions; cancel culture may prove damaging to the accused in the long run. The downside of promoting cancel culture is that it does not provide the wrongdoer an opportunity to correct themselves. It does not allow wrongdoers to grow outside of their mistakes. Those who fall victim to this type of culture have no means of coming back from their mistake and redeeming themselves, as the masses figuratively “remove” them from society.

An example of call-out culture in the Philippine context is the story of popular Filipino singer-songwriter Yeng Constantino – who came under fire online because of a particular vlog she posted recalling an event she experienced with her husband in a hospital in Siargao. Constantino pointed out the lack of preparedness and professionalism of the hospital’s staff in her vlog, bringing netizens to call her out for “doctor-shaming” licensed medical professionals, and being ignorant about the fact that they were in a provincial hospital, which may lack certain services and staff that she may be used to.

On the other hand, we are also able to see numerous instances of cancel culture in our country. Aside from the more recent incident with the CEO of Cookies by the Bucket, with Philippine politics being one of the main topics of discussion on any Filipino’s online news feed, it becomes a topic that netizens consider highly important to speak out about. Though it is important to discuss local politics, this puts those who choose not to speak openly about it in a tight spot. When Filipinos are known to have active social media accounts but have not spoken up about important matters happening in the country, some netizens are quick to ‘cancel’ these people and rant on their online platforms about it.

It appears our vision of compromise gets blurred in the context of cancel culture. While it is important to promote transparency and accountability for individuals who have done something wrong through “calling them out”, it is also important to help them grow from their mistakes and learn to change for the better through properly communicating with them and educating them on the matter at hand.

There is indeed a fragility of being a human, we can and will make mistakes, the catch though is there is a difference between an honest mistake and a repetitive one.

The concept of cancel culture has enormously grown into a button to push in millisecond when someone does something wrong. The constant urge to cancel others by sending personal attacks, threats, and boycotting their affiliations shows less concern in addressing the issue, tracing where it is coming from, and bringing awareness, and more on public and group shaming. Humans can and will make mistakes, but there is a difference between an honest mistake and a repetitive one. An honest mistake is an unintentional error with no malicious intent behind it, while a repetitive mistake is already having done the mistake several times. The prior speaks about not knowing better, while the latter shows someone who has made the same mistake several times, struggling to grow out of old habits.