The Ethics of Cancel Culture and Public Accountability

Navigating Justice, Forgiveness, and Redemption

Abstract

The digital age has empowered collective social media users to practice public accountability through a phenomenon called cancel culture. The social practice of cancel culture serves to elevate the voices of marginalized groups & to pursue local justice; however, it posits several perplexing moral dilemmas. The ethical issues surrounding cancel culture raise concerns about public justice standards, forgiveness practices, proportional reactions, and questions about personal growth and redemption. This article looks at cancel culture’s ethical implications to determine if it provides growth and change opportunities or only promotes absolute punishment. The mechanisms of social media cancel culture are evaluated to determine their effects on both individual targets and general social principles. This article investigates the psychological factors behind public shaming and the social media platform’s duties to control this behavior. The proposed framework addresses responsible public accountability by developing a balance between justice and compassion while enabling both the identification of accountability and transformative potential in social and personal development. The framework serves to direct public communication in online spaces and help users maintain productive dialogue.