In the context of what that person was saying, they certainly just mean "cancelling" and misused "verbing" to make their communication more difficult and less s

In the context of what that person was saying, they certainly just mean "cancelling" and misused "verbing" to make their communication more difficult and less succinct, defeating the entire purpose, yes. When you use "verbing" the actual verb is assumed, not explicit, so it's not specifically "engaging in cancel culture" so much as it is "the existence of cancel culture in the context of someone doing something".