In a recent interview with The New York Times, Kanye fretted extensively about being canceled, using some form of the word seven separate times. “I’m canceled. I’m canceled because I didn’t cancel Trump,” he said.

But not all cancellations are the result of transgressing fans’ expectations. Sometimes they happen for no stated reason. All it takes for someone to be canceled is for someone else to announce, via social media, that they are. And so even the seemingly blameless — Yara Shahidi, Rowan Blanchard, Chris Evans, etc. — have been canceled. Lena Waithe is one of few celebrities who thus far seems to have avoided cancellation, but perhaps it is imminent.

What Does It Mean to Be Canceled?

“To me, it’s ultimately an expression of agency,” said Meredith Clark, a professor at the University of Virginia’s department of media studies. “To a certain extent: I really do think of it like a breakup and a taking back of one’s power.” Canceling, she said, is an act of withdrawing from someone whose expression — whether political, artistic or otherwise — was once welcome or at least tolerated, but no longer is.

“It’s a cultural boycott,” said Lisa Nakamura, a professor at the University of Michigan who studies the intersection of digital media and race, gender and sexuality. “It’s an agreement not to amplify, signal boost, give money to. People talk about the attention economy — when you deprive someone of your attention, you’re depriving them of a livelihood.”

Who Can Be Canceled?

If you announce that someone is canceled, they’re canceled. But it gets more complicated.

Some people are more widely recognized as being canceled than others, and cancellation frequently comes in a groundswell as a response to a person’s comments or actions. Student Edge, an Australian website with articles written by high school and college students, announced in January that Twitter users “had decided to cancel Cardi B” after she defended the rapper Offset, her husband, for rapping that he “cannot vibe with queers.”