Cancel Culture and Social Media: Approaches, Debates, and Recent Research Trends

Abstract

Cancel culture has become a central axis of public debate in digital environments and an increasingly prominent object of sociological research. This article examines the current state of the field through a comparative analysis of three recent monographs in dialogue with recent academic literature. The study underscores the persistent conceptual fragmentation surrounding the phenomenon and identifies four predominant analytical frameworks: descriptive-processual, critical, legitimising, and structural. Building on these perspectives, cancel culture is conceptualised as a multilevel phenomenon that integrates practices of public sanctioning, interactional dynamics of moral regulation, and discursive frameworks shaping its social meaning. The analysis further examines its processual components, the role of emotion and algorithmic architecture in its intensification, and its symbolic, structural, and individual consequences. Artificial intelligence tools were employed to assist with drafting and formal revision, with all outputs subsequently reviewed and supervised by the authors.