Ever since the creation of social media, the world has utilized this to express themselves to share thoughts and ideas to others. In the era of social media, we have seen a lot of celebrities come and go on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms because of them stating things that are either not appropriate or offensive to their intended audiences. Social media has the power to diminish the First Amendment and limit some people’s ability to have free speech.

As a person who views a lot of television, I have seen actors fired because of their statements they post on social media. “The Mandalorian” was a hit show on the streaming service Disney+ with the potential of an upcoming third season. Gina Carano played a character on the show named Cara Dune, a former Rebellion shock trooper that assists the main protagonist on his journey. On February 10, 2021, she was fired by Disney due to a post that she made about the current day political division between our country and she said that being a Republican today is similar to the experience that Jewish people went through during the Holocaust. The post on Twitter did not stay on the platform for very long but once her followers saw this tweet, an outrage began to spread across the world. Mandalorian fans and many other people are calling her anti-Semitic and a multitude of descriptions. Marcus Herrington, an economics student and fan of “The Mandalorian” shared some thoughts on the cancellation of Gina Carano.

“This was terrible for the fans of Star Wars. There will definitely be some divisiveness between the fandom about her cancellation and I personally think that this was not critical enough to have her kicked off Disney,” Herrington said. “The funny thing is one of her colleagues on the show Pedro Pascal tweeted about three months ago making a comparison between (Donald) Trump and Nazi Germany but nothing ever happened to him. I believe there is a double standard that exists within Disney and pick and choose who is politically correct in their business.”

Many people  have heard of the idea of “cancel culture” and the ideology that if something does not fit with our society, it will be taken away from the public. However, Herrington does not think this was the case with Carano.  “Her post did make me feel a little weird on the inside with the comparison between Republicans and Jewish people… People who are Republican choose to be one but it does not result in genocide for supporting a political party.”

Herrington said that her firing shows that there are limits to free speech. “You can say about anything you want to anybody within appropriate standards that do not include racial slurs or threats to someone. I do believe her tweet was very cryptic which made the people who saw her tweet misinterpreted her intention but the reaction she got from the tweet was not a surprise. The Holocaust is one of the most catastrophic parts of our history and it cannot be compared to something as trivial as the political divide we have in our current world.”

Social media can hurt reputations and it all depends on what you say, what audience it is intended for,  who sees it, and who responds to it. There are limitations to what many people can say as it may hurt many others and cause turmoil on the media platform it is being posted on. Carano has made controversial tweets in the past that have made fans of “The Mandalorian” question about her political ideals that have affected her image. Censoring what you say on social media can help prevent hurting your  public image and future careers. Comparing our today’s events with something as terrible as the Holocaust will result in immediate backlash from other social media users.