Among other things, the world-famous British actor and comedian Rowan Atkinson, widely known for portraying ‘Mr. Bean’, criticizes the growing “cancel culture” of censorship and deletion of content on the Internet. There are bans on speaking like in the Middle Ages.
He is one of the most famous actors in Great Britain: The comedian Rowan Atkinson is considered to be the model comedian of the United Kingdom.
He is now viewed as “problematic” by many in the mainstream media for expressing opinions that have been censored by Internet social media (such as Twitter).
Rowan Atkinson defends himself and criticizes the growing “cancel culture” on the Internet. The term “cancel culture” is used to describe excessive censorship and the spread of systematic boycotts of people or organizations who are accused of making offensive or discriminatory statements or actions.
“The problem we have online is that an algorithm decides what we want to see, which ends up creating a simplistic, binary view of society,” he said matter-of-factly.
And he compares the situation with that in the Middle Ages:
“What we have now is the digital equivalent of the medieval mob roaming the streets looking for someone to burn.” He continued, “It’s scary for anyone who is a victim of this mob, and it fills me with fear of the future. “
He goes on to explain how difficult it becomes with freedom of expression when anything can be taken as insult or discrimination:
““The clear problem of the outlawing of insult is that too many things can be interpreted as such. Criticism, ridicule, sarcasm, merely stating an alternative point of view to the orthodoxy, can be interpreted as insult.”