Strategic scaling and moral semiosis: a multimodal model of cancel culture in Platformized publics

Abstract This study reconceptualizes cancel culture as a platform-mediated contest over scalar moral legitimacy, where digital infrastructures and narrative strategies jointly shape reputational outcomes. Integrating Self-Categorization Theory, Social Comparison Theory, and Kramer’s concept of strategic scaling, the paper introduces the SCT/SCoT-Platformized Scaling Model to explain how identity dynamics, moral comparison, and platform affordances interact to construct and contest public reputations. Analyzing eight high-profile cases, the study demonstrates that algorithmic amplification fuels polarization through emotional contagion; reputational management hinges on strategic scalar framing (upscaling ideological stakes or downscaling individual culpability); and platform governance selectively enforces cancellation based on corporate risk calculus. This integrated analysis advances understanding of cancel culture as a sociotechnical and semiotic struggle for moral legitimacy in digital publics.