What to do if you get cancelled online.

Keep your cool, minimize the damage, and only make amends to those you really owe it to.

Photo by Greg Johnson of Unsplash, text from an anonymous question submitted to my Tumblr.

In my time as a public figure I have been criticized, misinterpreted, accused of having positions that I do not have and of doing things that I have not done, been stalked, had threatening physical mail sent to my office, had critics of my pro-Palestinian stance report me to my University president for “antisemitism” every single day for months, been investigated professionally for bias, been threatened with legal action for calling out ethical issues within my field, and had my contact information leaked.

But despite my often free-wheeling approach to digital exposure and my penchant for provocative takes, I have never been cancelled, or really had any kind of mass public censure really stick.

From massively popular YouTube celebrities to niche fetish bloggers, I’ve seen what mass criticism does to a person, the persecution narrative and all-body stress it can create, the many ways that a cancelled person’s panic response can lead them to make matters far worse for themselves, and maybe even for the people they have been said to harm.

I have seen what works and what doesn’t when responding to mass public criticism, taken notes from the handful of…