Cancel Culture and Trigger-Ready Fragmented Interest Groups: The Case of Depp Versus Amber Heard

Abstract

Using Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, this paper examines a sample of X hashtags supporting or criticizing Johnny Depp or Amber Heard in their 2022 domestic abuse/defamation trial, where in both cases there were calls to cancel each. The analysis explores how the acts carried out by the targets for canceling, along with concrete details of their personal circumstances, become set aside as what we call “trigger-ready” interest groups become activated by a perceived transgression in relation to their own more narrow and heterogeneous concerns. Hashtags become an entanglement of vaguely articulated discourses relating to matters including fandom, gender, abuse and conspiracy. These discourses stack up against the target and coalesce into growing outrage. The analysis suggests that intensity of canceling bares little relationship to any actual transgression but to the extent to which these “trigger-ready” groups become involved. This may be a characteristic of wider patterns in online cancel campaigns.