An early reference to someone being "canceled" was in 2014, in an episode of "Love & Hip-Hop: New York" when a cast member told his girlfriend "You're canceled" when she revealed she had a daughter. So it became a lighthearted way to show disapproval toward a person's actions.
https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1578964763220271105
Also in 2014, activist Suey Park called out "a blatantly racist tweet about Asians" from the official Twitter account of The Colbert Report using the hashtag #cancelColbert, which generated widespread outrage against Stephen Colbert, even though the tweet was a satirical tweet.
By 2015, the concept of canceling had become widespread on #BlackTwitter to refer to a personal decision, sometimes seriously but often in jest, to stop supporting a person or work.
"Cancellation" came to indicate the "total disinvestment in something". After many cases of online shaming gained wide notoriety, the term cancellation was increasingly used to describe a widespread, outraged, online response to a provocative statement, against a single target.
Over time, as isolated instances of cancellation became more frequent and the mob mentality more apparent, commentators began seeing a "culture" of outrage and cancellation.
The phrase 'cancel culture' has only gained popularity since late 2019.
The phrase 'cancel culture' has only gained popularity since late 2019.
It was used as a recognition that society will exact accountability for offensive conduct. More recently, the phrase has become a shorthand employed by conservatives in the US & UK to refer to what are perceived to be disproportionate reactions to 'politically incorrect' speech.
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