Public Twitter mobs are less visible, but enforcement migrated to private channels—hiring committees, editorial boards, and informal blacklists—while potential targets adapt by hiding or self‑censoring. Survey data show fear and self‑censorship are highest among the highly educated and in metropolitan hubs. The result looks like fading outrage but reflects a change in venue, not new tolerance.
— If cancellation has gone subterranean, focusing only on viral pile‑ons misreads speech norms and underestimates institutional gatekeeping that shapes careers and public debate.
Valerie Stivers
2025.10.03
55% relevant
The Atlantic publicly denounced Ruth Shalit Barrett in a retraction note, then privately settled her defamation/contract suit for over $1 million—illustrating how reputational enforcement can migrate into opaque institutional and legal channels with downstream chilling effects.
Susan Pickard
2025.10.01
78% relevant
The author describes a contract termination after most of 26 invited reviewers declined to review once they saw the manuscript, and multiple presses calling the topic 'too controversial,' illustrating cancellation migrating from public mobs to private editorial processes and informal blacklists.
Lee Jussim
2025.09.24
75% relevant
The article emphasizes investigations, tenure decisions, and professional distancing as de facto punishments even without public mobs, aligning with the thesis that enforcement migrated to private channels; it adds evidence that targets publish 20% fewer papers and lose 4% in prior-work citations.
Mike Smeltzer
2025.09.20
78% relevant
The article argues that Kimmel’s suspension and Colbert’s exit are framed as 'financial' and affiliate decisions—mirroring the shift from public mob pressure to private, institutional suppression described in this idea.
2025.09.15
60% relevant
The article cites survey data showing widespread faculty self‑censorship and fear of social or professional penalties—even among tenured professors—consistent with the claim that speech policing has migrated from public pile‑ons to institutional gatekeeping and private sanctions.
PW Daily
2025.09.08
55% relevant
Gladwell’s admission that he was 'cowed' on trans-in-sports echoes the dynamic where overt mobbing gives way to institutional and social-pressure enforcement that drives elite self-censorship.
Rob Henderson
2025.09.07
100% relevant
The article cites the Bennet firing, Adichie backlash, a Cambridge anecdote of students checking Twitter to approve a movie, and surveys showing 44% of postgrads feared job risks and higher metro self‑censorship.