Cancelling is totally a thing and it’s disengenuious to pretend it isn’t. A few years ago progressives were even using “cancel” as a verb when annoyed with someone.

This isn’t to say that anyone who faces consequences for their actions has been cancelled, sometimes it’s simply their employer or someone else that makes the decision to cut ties, but the idea of the social media pile on was once known as “cancelling” by the people doing it.