The aggressive fandom culture and the so called cancel culture have almost always gone hand in hand.
This is to say that when something or someone gets even a little critical or controversial in the slightest way, social media users would gang up and ‘cancel’ the thing in trouble.
Comedians have often been the target of these concentrated online attacks based on statements that some found offensive or politically incorrect. In other cases, the conflict can be much more petty and rather childish.
The online feud that has taken over Twitter seems to be a classic example of the latter, represented by #BurgerKingIsOverParty. As the hashtag name suggests, the brand that is under attack is Burger King. The attackers are Swifties – the fervent fans of pop singer Taylor Swift.
This rather unexpected conflict began like many other bizarre internet feuds – over one tweet. When asked what their favorite Swift song was, the BK account replied “the one about her ex”.
It was a rather cheap and sarcastic reply as Swift has often been accused by her detractors as only being capable of writing music based on her ex-boyfriends and former relationships. Naturally, it is one comment that all Swifties are quite sensitive about.
Therefore, even after the original poster explained that the tweet was meant to be a joke and has since deleted the tweet, Swift fans around social media joined forces to ‘cancel’ Burger King.
‘Cancel’ culture can essentially be understood as a form of protest that falls somewhere between cyberbullying and a boycott. One user asked BK to apologize, characterizing the tweet as a sexist attack on the pop singer.
Others took the more childish way, deriding the quality of the hamburgers from the brand and saying that other rival fast-food chains have always been better than Burger King.
In a sly move, McDonalds tried to take advantage of the situation by saying that they refrain from making jokes at the expense of others, even when the butt of the joke is a celebrity.
Other users lamented at the fact that this hashtag became more popular than the #BlackLivesMatter online movement that has regained popularity after a series of events this week.
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Replaced!