The increasingly common phenomenon of “canceling” someone couldn’t happen without the internet and the pervasiveness of social media, cancel culture expert and author Evan Nierman told WGN-TV in Chicago during a May 1^st interview.

Evan is co-author of the book The Cancel Culture Curse: From Rage to Redemption in a World Gone Mad and is Founder and CEO of the crisis PR firm Red Banyan. Mark Sachs, Red Banyan’s senior vice president of client services, wrote the book with Evan. The Cancel Culture Curse is available on Amazon.

During an interview about the new book, Evan talked about why cancel culture is occurring now and explained why regular citizens have much to lose.

“Reputations that are built up over decades can evaporate in mere seconds. And it’s because everybody is chasing the likes and the views,” Evan told WGN-TV. “There’s a connection between the mainstream press and social media so it’s definitely a new phenomenon. We wrote the book in order to both define (cancel culture) and to expose it and then ultimately, hopefully defeat it.”

Asked if the Harvey Weinstein case exemplified cancel culture, Evan pointed out that Weinstein wasn’t canceled, but instead charged and convicted under our system of justice. Weinstein, who co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, was sentenced to 23 years in prison after dozens of women accused him of sexual harassment and rape.

“Harvey Weinstein wasn’t cancelled. Harvey Weinstein was convicted in court and sent to prison because a case was made against him. There is due process in this country, and in his case, the due process worked,” Evan said in the interview. “That’s a prime example of where we don’t need online mobs of people to bring justice. We have a justice system for that.”

Evan explained that when regular citizens are attacked by online mobs, the fallout can destroy their reputations or worse.

“What you have are people who are everyday citizens who have not raped and assaulted people, who have maybe not even done what they’re accused of doing, but their lives are destroyed by these online mobs,” Evan noted.  “Most people think mistakenly that it’s just celebrities or high-profile people that are susceptible. And that’s not the case at all.”

Watch the complete interview here.

Evan and Mark’s book is available on Amazon here.