Project Controversy: The Rise of Callout Culture on YouTube

On a platform dominated by big personalities, drama isn’t hard to come by, and when shame brings numbers, controversy can be manufactured. TenEighty chats to Jack Dean, Jana Hisham, Luke Cutforth, Kelsey Ellison and more about the impact of cancel culture on YouTube.

“The experience of being called out was, in all honesty, existentially terrifying,” Luke Cutforth recalls of his calling out in 2016. “One minute you think you’re fine, the next, thousands of people who once either liked you or didn’t even know you exist suddenly think you’re the spawn of Satan, and, as I realised, they’re not entirely wrong!

“There’s a period of denial, anger, and stubbornness while you try and convince yourself you’ve not been a prize fool,” he continues. “You might try to convince yourself that ‘they can’t see my side of it’, but equally, as you eventually have to admit yourself, you haven’t seen theirs either! The angry mob do have a point!

It’s a process which Luke describes as a gut and heart-wrenching. “It feels like the whole world hates you and it is a very me-centric experience. Ultimately you have to get over the me, me, me, of it all, remove yourself from the situation and focus on the real point. Has a mistake been made? Who is at fault? Would you make the same decision again? Have you learnt?”

The “now-infamous” video in question was Coming Out, in which Luke talked about the end of a straight relationship, at a time when many coming out videos from LGBTQ+ creators were being released.

“It was a joke amongst friends which shouldn’t really have made it online,” admits Luke, “but I learnt from it, and that’s what’s important!”

For YouTuber Jack Dean, a creator who has made a name for himself by critiquing others, the tables were bound to turn. “I’ve been called out a number of times,” he says, “but it’s always been a kind-of storm in a teacup.

“As somebody who calls people out often I think I owe it to my audience to acknowledge the moments in which they believe I’ve truly messed up,” Jack goes on to add. “I wouldn’t expect it to be one rule for me and one rule for everybody else.

“However to caveat that; I do also believe you should only apologise if you actually believe what you did was wrong. Often the internet loves to call people out for any little thing. Being offended is never a good enough reason.”

As for creator Kelsey Ellison, hers came when calling out callout culture. “When I did a video commenting about [it], I actually got a lot of people educating me on the fact that callout culture online – and particularly on Twitter – originated from the black community for calling out companies for being racist or discriminatory,” she explains, “which I I believe should be a conversation.

“It’s almost become a trend online sometimes to be outraged, and people are looking for the next thing to be ‘cancelled’, which in some situations is still needed, but a lot of it has become very toxic in my opinion.”

“Calling companies out, or ‘cancelling them’, however… that has now migrated into something completely different. It’s almost become a trend online sometimes to be outraged, and people are looking for the next thing to be ‘cancelled’, which in some situations is still needed, but a lot of it has become very toxic in my opinion,” she adds.

The process of minority groups calling something, or someone, out comes up in conversation with Hank Green. Speaking to TenEighty, in the corridor outside the VidCon London press room at the ExCeL centre in February, the convention’s co-founder says we have a hard time imagining our power, with society’s structure being about trading cultural capital.

“Often at times, people are actually using [callout culture] in a kind of methodical way to increase their cultural capital, their connection, their followers,” he explains, “and often at times what we see is that people who are using them most effectively are people who are already quite powerful, and the people who get ignored are the ones who are powerless to begin with, and maybe started the movement, but it got taken over by powerful people.”

However it came to be, the act of public shaming has become more sophisticated with the rise of social media. In what is an incredibly intense and emotional experience for creators and viewers alike, cancel culture can certainly bring in views and attention.

As much as “powerful people” may benefit more from callout culture, so too do those who seek to monetise it. Organic callouts are devastating. Manufactured drama, meanwhile, has a financial incentive.

“I think PR stunts have been around for much longer than anyone has been watching YouTube,” Jana Hisham says. “As much as it’s unethical to orchestrate false drama, and also just a bit immature and embarrassing, audiences should be more aware that not every YouTuber, influencer, or celebrity is necessarily going to be totally honest and ethical all the time.

“We can’t assume that everyone in the public eye is well-meaning just because they’re famous,” she adds. “In fact in my experience many influencers I’ve met come across insincere, clearly looking out for their personal interests, seeing who they can make friends with that will make them more important.

“I think the more the audience becomes wise to these characters, the better. But there’s always going to be the audiences that love the drama and there’s always going to be creators who create it for them and profit off of that.”

“Becoming famous is hard. Becoming infamous easy, specifically because of callout culture.”

Meanwhile Luke believes that “absolutely” people manufacture their own drama. “At the end of the day, if being an online personality is your job, what really matters is that people are talking about you, searching you, watching videos about you, etc,” he says. “Becoming famous is hard. Becoming infamous easy, specifically because of callout culture.

“There are literally millions of internet users ready to make content about you if you’re willing to do something controversial enough. If it’s happening, it’s clever as hell, and I suppose some admiration can be directed towards these people for not caring about what strangers think of them (I could certainly use some tips there!),” he continues, “but you’re also feeding millions of people lies, subjecting them to negative emotions like anger, fear, sadness, and using their outrage for your personal gain.

“Should the public be more resilient to being caught up in negativity? Of course, but equally you, as the person using controversy to get famous should have more integrity, respect and dedication to your work than to use others for personal gain,” Luke concludes.

When there’s the potential for audiences to be manipulated by fake callouts, apology videos are becoming increasingly difficult for creators to perfect. For YouTubers caught up in a scandal, how they apologise is just as important as when they upload their response.

In January 2018, American vlogger Logan Paul issued a statement on Twitter in response to outrage over a video he uploaded featuring an apparent victim of suicide. When his original response was met with further criticism, an apology video was posted. Its opening words, “I’ve made a severe and continuous lapse in my judgement,” have long been parodied by viewers online.

Others followed. In online beauty culture, US YouTuber Laura Lee was called out for past tweets from 2012 and 2013, while one of the community’s biggest stars, James Charles, found himself at the centre of a scandal earlier this year.

With audience trust faltering, the question of whether an apology is genuine falls to individual viewers to decide.

“When anyone apologises it’s not the job of the audience to immediately forgive them,” says Jana. “When trust is broken it takes time for it to rebuild, however an apology is a good start.

“I don’t believe an apology will help if the creator has caused real harm to another person,” she continues, “but for other less unforgiving mistakes, I think a good apology video is taking responsibility and putting your hands up when you’ve made a mistake. It’s not making any excuses for why you’ve done what you’ve done, which is something I see a lot in apology videos.”

“I think the perfect apology is honest, humble, and mature,” Luke explains. “Do not try and tell a lie to get you out of the hole you dug for yourself. Admit your faults, share what you didn’t know, what you’ve learned now, and how the experience will make you a better person.

“Do not, ever, try to play the victim,” he continues. “Even if you’ve been subjected to horrible things in response. You’re only in this situation because of your own mistake. Own your mistake, humble the hell up, grow, and move on.

“You better not make the same mistake again though, because that’s a whole other story,” he laughs.

Jack has a different take: “Only say something if you believe you are sorry,” he stresses. “If you’re not, and stand by the ‘thing’ that you said or did, then ignore it or even laugh it off. The moment you apologise just because you’ve been called out, despite not agreeing with those doing so, you lose.

“Obviously if you’re being called out because you kicked a kid in the head or shot a cat, then it seriously needs to be addressed or you need to be locked up, but if you’re being called out for ‘edgy material’ or ‘offensive jokes’ then just carry on. People will always be offended, it doesn’t mean they’re right.

“I’m offended by people who enjoy the likes of Cardi B and Pitbull – doesn’t mean I’m right,” he jokes. “Although, that music definitely is wrong.”

“Social media is a democratised media by nature, giving audiences a huge amount of power and responsibility to regulate creators and hold them accountable.”

In many instances, a response video is an attempt to win back the respect of viewers, but after several scandals have hit both individual creators and the community as a whole, audience trust is a hard thing to win back.

“As they become more powerful, rich and famous, [creators] become less relatable and therefore that bond between audience and creator becomes weaker,” Jana explains.

“Social media is a democratised media by nature, giving audiences a huge amount of power and responsibility to regulate creators and hold them accountable. Sometimes this is done positively, to bring light to important issues, ultimately protecting the ecosystem from toxic behaviour.

“However more often than not it’s now used to air personal issues which are not of public concern, and people are finding it difficult to differentiate the two,” she says.

It’s an issue which rings true with Olajide ‘KSI’ Olatunji and his brother, Oladeji ‘Deji’ Olatunji. In a personal falling out on a public platform spanning several months, viewers found themselves stuck in the middle. As the spat continued, KSI pleaded with his sibling to discuss the matter privately.

When it comes to whether or not a callout should happen in private, Kelsey believes that it depends on the situation. “If it’s something that really could affect a lot of others, if it’s someone who has a large platform that could make their audience unsafe, I think public callouts are needed,” she explains.

“If it’s a smaller or personal issue, I think trying to sort it out personally first is always the way to go, since calling out someone, especially a person rather than a company, could ruin everything for them.

“It’s a huge risk to take if it turns out later it was misjudged,” she adds.

For Jack, people can always be forgiven for things they’ve done – provided it’s only happened once. “If they continue to do the bad thing over and over again, then they deserved to be called out,” he says.

“I think the private/public debate comes from just how passionately you feel about the thing they’ve done wrong,” he continues. “If it’s something close to your heart, and you do feel passionately about it, then it doesn’t matter too much how you address it as long as you go into it with all the facts and do as much research as possible.”

“If the audience is at real risk of being exploited or taken advantage of, I think it’s fair to attempt to bring the issue to the attention of the public and the audience,” says Jana. “I don’t believe that things in someone’s past should come in to play, because people grow and learn and the world was a very different place even five years ago.

“I think people have the right to discuss things a creator said in their past if they’ve chosen to put it on social media, but I don’t believe that should develop into a witch hunt. Of course it depends on the severity of the situation, but that again would fall under the criteria of putting the creator’s audience at risk.

“I also don’t believe that personal issues between creators should be made public – especially issues that are resolvable in private. I’ve never experienced a situation like that which made everything better. The drama that follows is usually much bigger than the issue itself too.”

“Calling out’ should only ever be a last resort. This is because, in reality, nobody wins in a public shaming.”

Luke believes creators should first be offered the chance to change in private. “‘Calling out’ should only ever be a last resort,” he says. “This is because, in reality, nobody wins in a public shaming. It’s a painful experience for everyone involved.”

“The person called out looks like an idiot – or worse – in front of the whole world. Those who are part of the shaming are probably left with a feeling of grossness at the whole experience. They might have exposed an injustice, and often rightly so, but at the end of the day, they still took part in something a little bit unpleasant.

“The rest of us, the people neither shamed nor doing the shaming, are forced to pick sides. Do I side with the mob? Or the problematic person? Is it that black and white? Am I terrible for not being able to make my mind up?”

As emotions run high in the community, so too does the potential for mob mentality to kick in. When audiences are presented with several sides of a story from which to choose, how should an audience react to YouTube drama?

It’s a question which Jack finds easy to answer. “They should act like a reasonable human being,” he says. “They should process both sides of the argument and form their own opinion.

“If I call somebody out on YouTube, and a member of my audience agrees with me just because it’s me saying it, then I think they’re a fucking idiot,” he continues. “If however, they hear my opinions and strongly agree, and then partake in the open conversation online, that’s perfectly fine. Likewise if they disagree with me, I’m super happy to hear why.

“I think more people need to start treating their audience like adults. Sure, some are kids, but the majority of my audience have grown up with me. I’m not ever going to tell them how to think or what to say,” he says.

“[Audiences] should listen to both sides and not just be on the popular ‘outraged’ side. Callout with the intention to cause real change – not to get notifications.”

Kelsey shares a similar view: “They should do their research,” she states. “They should know the definite facts before jumping on a callout bandwagon. They should listen to both sides and not just be on the popular ‘outraged’ side. Callout with the intention to cause real change – not to get notifications.”

“The sad thing for me is that I do not believe in these situations there is a correct way to act,” says Luke. “My instinct says that people should act with as much love and understanding as possible. Comfort anyone hurt, or caught in the crossfire. Read and watch sources,” he stresses.

“And my biggest piece of advice of all: if you’re struggling with what you’re seeing, or what’s being said, or don’t want to be part of drama or callouts, log off, go outside, see your friends, do something positive. At the end of the day, the easiest way to combat negativity in the world is to bring some positivity into the world.”

Everyone is SO afraid of being associated with someone who gets 'cancelled', and their self image, that it's absolutely stifled our creativity and our understanding that a community is greater than the sum of its parts.

— Jana Hisham (@JanaHisham) March 5, 2019

At its questionable best a form of vigilantism, and at its worst, a vitriolic mob mentality, callout culture is a blend of two extremes. In such a volatile environment, creators are careful to create edgier videos.

“It makes me sad to admit that but it’s entirely true,” Luke confesses, when asked if callout culture has affected his ability to make riskier content. “I realised quite recently that I am often guilty of catering my content to the 1% of people who are waiting for me to mess up, than the 99% of people who want me to do well, and I’m far too quick to back down, to delete an edgy, risky tweet because of someone getting angry at me.

“I’m re-learning the old care-free nature I used to have, and I’ll come out of the other side probably stronger, funnier, and even more powerful,” he laughs, “but the process has made me much shyer, risk averse, and politically correct. This is not necessarily callout culture’s fault! It’s my fault for making the mistake, if we’re apportioning blame!”

“This mob-mentality that social media seems to breed is scary at first, knowing that one opinion could get you crucified, but once you’ve felt the ‘wrath’ of the mighty Tweeter once or twice, you do genuinely just realise it’s all just noise.”

Jack too has felt the impact of callout culture. “As much as I try and stay as true to myself as I can; I’d also be lying if I said it hasn’t affected me,” he says. “It has. I have specifically avoided topics in which I know my opinion would be frowned upon.

“Don’t get me wrong – if I needed to express that opinion – then I definitely would,” he continues, “but if the video isn’t too important, then it’s sometimes just easier to sway away from that.

Some creators fear risk-taking on a platform which has constantly pushed to more extreme content, while others see it as an opportunity to make money from the heated reaction of their community. The drama rages on while viewers are caught in the middle, forced to pass a logical judgement in a situation which becomes all the more personal and emotional.

While callout culture remains a complex minefield, one aspect of the online phenomenon could not be simpler: an apology works best when the person at fault is truly sorry, with a logical response being the best approach.

Yet as both videomakers and audience members try to find the balance between an emotional and logical response to controversy, in YouTube’s growing shame game, it’s surprising if anyone’s really a winner.