Stay informed with free updates
Simply sign up to the Media myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.
Celebrities and business executives worried about being “cancelled” over their words or actions will be able to take out insurance to deal with the fallout of being caught up in a social media-fuelled culture war.
The policy is being created by Samphire Risk, a Lloyd’s of London backed independent underwriting agency that offers products focused on crime, hostage-taking and kidnap risk, with Borkowski PR, a London-based crisis communications group.
Cover provided by the insurance policy includes crisis management communications services specifically designed to protect individuals against cancel culture, and to mitigate reputational damage caused by negative media and social media coverage.
“Sharing or liking a tweet can bring the whole world down on you,” said Mark Borkowski, a veteran PR boss who drew up the terms of the policy with the services’ risk partner RepuTitan.
“There are a lot of anxious people. The cancel button is the new guillotine [and] one mistake is your epitaph. It’s too easy to take a position on things . . . without being thoughtful.”
Social media can create near instant backlash when celebrities, executives and sports stars are deemed to have crossed often arbitrary lines, causing lasting damage and financial cost.
“Social media turbo charges any reaction and spreads it around the world in seconds,” Borkowski said. He added that “in an age where a single tweet can erase a lifetime of credibility — think of . . . Chrissy Teigen’s cancellation over resurfaced messages — [this] is the insurance against digital volatility.”
There are existing reputational crisis insurance products but Borkowski says this will “bridge the gap” in corporate policies by focusing on personal protection for celebrities, executives, athletes and high net worth individuals as well as offering preventive measures.
The policy includes research, analysis, monitoring and training to prevent potential reputational issues in advance, as well as a 24/7 hotline and 60 days of communications work to manage and respond to negative media and social media coverage.
“This includes ‘cancel culture’ and ‘culture war’ fallout, areas where corporations may not, or will not, provide personal cover,” Borkowski said.
The policy will also cover dealing with modern hazards such as misinformation and deepfakes, and extends to associated risks such as extortion, blackmail and family-related concerns.
Borkowski said the policy was not designed for people who had broken the law or who were guilty of wrongdoing, but was aimed at those who were worried about their words or actions being taken out of context or with the wrong “spin”.
Borkowski also said that “bot farms” have emerged that rapidly spread fake information about people deliberately to damage or divert attention from an individual.
