AI-DRİVEN ALGORİTHMİC PROPAGANDA AND EPİSTEMİC AUTHORİTY: GLOBAL POWER COMPETİTİON AND THE DİGİTAL POLİTİCAL ECONOMY

In the digital age, artificial intelligence-supported algorithmic propaganda plays a decisive role in the reconfiguration of global power competition and epistemic authority. This study analyzes how algorithmic propaganda processes operate within the digital information ecosystem and the shift of epistemic authority toward platform corporations from the perspectives of critical international relations, digital political economy, and social epistemology. The research adopts a conceptual and theoretical analysis method based on qualitative research design, conducting in-depth examination through the triangulation of data, concepts, and theory. Findings reveal that artificial intelligence technologies are not merely technical tools but structural mechanisms that reshape power relations. The scalability, personalization, and behavioral prediction capacity of algorithmic propaganda demonstrate radical differentiation from traditional propaganda models. The emergence of platform corporations as epistemic authorities occurs outside democratic legitimacy processes, triggering transformation of the public sphere. The digital hegemony competition between the United States and China demonstrates that data capacity and algorithmic control emerge as new sources of power. The platform capitalism model of digital political economy blurs boundaries between data collection and information manipulation. The study emphasizes that algorithmic propaganda generates epistemic injustice, threatens cognitive security, and affects global power balance. The theoretical contribution of the article is providing an interdisciplinary analytical framework by integrating computational propaganda, structural power, and epistemic authority concepts. Consequently, regulating artificial intelligence-supported propaganda mechanisms and democratizing epistemic authority constitute fundamental challenges facing contemporary democracies.