Sometimes all it takes is one tweet with the wrong tone and it's over.
But other times, it's a serious crime that lands South Africa's who's who on the cancelled list.
And once you are out, you are out and it often takes years of living out of the spotlight to 'earn' forgiveness from South Africans, especially on social media.
These are the people that Unfollowed focuses on.
Unfollowed is a Showmax Original docu-series that explores the phenomenon of cancel culture in South Africa through the real-life stories of celebrities who have faced public backlash on social media.
Hosted by journalist Thembekile Mrototo, the series features interviews with singer Lady Zamar, presenter and musician Jub Jub, influencer Mihlali, poet Ntsiki Mazwai and others who share their personal experiences of being unfollowed, criticised and shamed online. The series also includes insights from journalists, activists and legal experts on the impact of cancel culture on individuals and society.
The timing of this release is also poignant as cancel culture has perhaps lost the momentum it once had. Yes, just this week American singer and actor Lizzo came under fire for allegedly sexually harassing her employees among other things.
There are also a few people on the cusp of being cancelled as we have seen with singer Kelly Khumalo, who found herself dropped by two festivals so far, as the Senzo Meyiwa trial unfurls.
Drum reached out to one of the minds behind this show, which could trend every week.
The vision and approach
Vanessa Tloubatla is the series producer of Unfollowed and the 43-year-old says a lot of work was poured into making this docu-series memorable. Vanessa says Unfollowed is the brainchild of MultiChoice and Showmax. Her production company Goat Originals developed it further alongside the channel and their creative team.
“This show was inspired by the way in which South Africans use social media platforms. Social media has a powerful affiliation to the way the public take news, facts and judgement into their own lives and opinions, and thus affect the community around them. We wanted to put social media on trial and unpack the phenomenon of cancel culture in detail and completely with an unbiased approach. Cancel culture impacts lives tremendously. Not just what we see and hear on our timelines. It is the base of the story we are trying to tell.”
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The list of cancelled individuals was created with care and the people shortlisted are all entertaining in their own right, which should aid the purposes of this show.
“We looked at a wide range of potential case studies and narrowed it down to a collection that all have unique stories and perspectives. We really wanted each episode to be a piece of the puzzle that defines cancel culture and online culture of celebrities being judged. Many were reluctant to the idea, but there were some that were ready and willing to open up about their experience with the movement,” the creative mind, who was born in Atlanta Georgia in America and now resides in Kwa-Thema Springs, says.
There is something to be said for the people who have dared to have their stories examined on this show, which was a challenge for the production at first as people would rather shun any notions of them being cancelled.
“Finding celebrities who were open to being vulnerable and revisit some of the most difficult times of their lives and risk being scrutinised by the public again. It was also difficult to focus mainly on the topic at hand, which is the movement, without rehashing what happened in the celebrities lives while trying to remain neutral, but we think we found a good balance and we hope it will be received as such by the viewers.”
The show aims to present viewers with the other side of the cancel culture movement, how the movement impacts people's lives, sometimes negatively.
“We also aim to demonstrate how social media can cultivate a culture of people coming together to shed light on an issue, hold people accountable and sometimes force brands or employees to take action,” she explicates.
The belief is that this show will spark a thought-provoking conversation. Vanessa is of the notion that, “If we can get at least one person to stop and think before they judge, criticise, blame, or post hurtful messages about others, then we will have achieved our ultimate goal which is to put social media on trial, not the people.”
Vanessa prides herself on allowing the unfollowed guests to tell their own stories in an authentic way and not imposing the production’s opinions or those of others on what is believed to have happened or why and whether these people deserved to be cancelled or not.
“There was no brief. It’s a completely open discussion, and Thembekile thrives in environments like this to allow the conversation to flow however uneasy it may be at times.”
What you can hope to experience from Unfollowed
Vanessa’s most memorable part of this experience was seeing it all come together. She says that when dealing with production you can plan, and plan again, but things always take a natural path and there can be a lot of lessons to learn from that process.
“Also working with a remarkable group of experienced and pleasant people from the crew and channel that are passionate about telling authentic local stories. That's always pleasant to see."
The production really tried to remain neutral and demonstrated an understanding that people who will be watching this show can form their own opinions.
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“So, we wanted to give them a chance to be part of the conversation by removing our own thoughts and opinions. We have contributors on the show who are experienced in the subject matter, so we put all those elements together and are giving it to the people to draw their own conclusion. It was important to us that this wasn't a platform for redemption or pity, but one of open challenging discussion.”
Dealing with being cancelled
Vanessa says the most intriguing thing to happen on the show was to observe the different ways in which celebrities deal with being cancelled, “can't really give too much away about it, the viewers will see for themselves”.
She thinks social media has brought us way too close for comfort to each other, not just celebrities. Celebrities happen to be at the forefront but that comes with the territory.
“We have, however, seen instances where people band together to support and uplift a celebrity so it's a double-edged sword, but we hope we all learn something from these stories that we can do better on social media.”
After spending months dealing with this volatile subject matter Vanessa has some strong insights on the matter and offers some wise words to anyone teetering on the edge of no return and how best to deal with this societal imposition.
“My advice would be taking time to deal with the reason they were cancelled, introspect, heal, take accountability within themselves first where accountability is needed, but most of all decide for themselves if social media is a safe space for them before diving back in.
“I think people go back because society in general can be forgiving, but where forgiveness is hard to get, staying away may be healthy. People always want what they cannot have or as the saying goes absence sometimes makes the heart grow fonder, but again to each their own.”
Vanessa is hopeful that this series will do what it is projected to and hopefully a second season will be on the cards.
Unfollowed premieres on 23 August 2023, with new episodes every Wednesday, only on Showmax.
