People have a freedom of who they associate with and do business with:
Boycott is when you decide not to spend your money someplace because you don’t agree with them. You’re exercising your freedom of association.
Cancellation is when a 3rd party demands that a employee/employer sever their relationship because the 3rd party disapproves of the employee. Here, a 3rd party is imposing on two other parties’ freedom of association.
Also, the substance of the speech is quite different:
- “You are wrong, and here are the reasons why” is debate.
- “You are wrong, and you should become unemployable” is cancellation. Cancellation is technically speech, but it is speech that is focused on imposing a high cost on other speech. Talk about the “paradox of intolerance” argument that the modern left loves to use.