Biography
Mustafa Eren Akpınar is an independent academic researcher specializing in digital transformation, algorithmic authority, and media studies. Holding both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Journalism, he possesses over five years of high-level teaching experience. His scholarly contributions include over 110 citations, an h‑index of 6, and more than 18 published papers. He is currently developing an original theoretical framework, "Technological Revaluation," which examines the shift of epistemic authority from human agency to algorithmic regimes. His research primarily operates at the intersection of Communication Studies, Media Studies, Sociology, Posthumanism, and Digital Hegemony. In the same year, he received a master's degree from Istanbul Aydın University Graduate Education Institute, Department of Journalism. Mustafa Eren Akpınar is currently researching mainly in the fields of Social Media Studies, Gender Studies, Digital Communication, Communication Studies and Journalism and Media Studies.
Conference contributions 1
FROM FALLACY TO ALGORITHM:
Whataboutism, ad hominem, tokenism and ostracism as automated mechanisms of cancel culture in the age of artificial intelligence
The rapid proliferation of digital communication technologies has fundamentally restructured the conditions under which public discourse is formed, debated, and suppressed. This article examines how four well-documented discursive manipulation strategies—whataboutism, ad hominem attacks, tokenism, and ostracism—are increasingly automated through artificial intelligence systems, bot networks, and Large Language Models (LLMs), thereby institutionalizing cancel culture as a systematic phenomenon rather than an isolated social practice. Drawing primarily on Jürgen Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action as a theoretical framework, the study argues that the preconditions of genuine communicative rationality—such as mutual comprehensibility, sincerity, and normative legitimacy—are systematically undermined when manipulative fallacies are deployed at algorithmic scale and speed. Building upon the concept of Technological Revaluation proposed by Akpınar (2024), this article contends that technology no longer functions merely as a neutral medium of human communication but has instead achieved its own hegemonic authority, transforming manipulation from an individual rhetorical act into an automated, institutionalized mechanism of social control. The study adopts a qualitative, theory-driven analytical approach utilizing critical discourse analysis. Findings demonstrate that AI-driven manipulation operates through four interlocking modes: algorithmic distraction (whataboutism), automated reputation attacks (ad hominem), performative inclusion (tokenism), and coordinated exclusion (ostracism)—each reinforcing the others within a self-perpetuating cancel culture ecosystem. The article concludes with a call for a communicative AI design ethics grounded in Habermasian principles of discourse ethics.