Digital Morality and Networked Justice: Cancel Culture in the Perception of Youth

The article presents a sociological analysis of cancel culture as a form of moral regulation in the context of digital society. The study aims to reconstruct how representatives of Generation Z perceive cancel culture and to identify the moral and emotional frameworks within which the practice of public digital condemnation is interpreted. The theoretical foundation is based on the concepts of stigma (E. Goffman), moral panic (S. Cohen), and networked publicity (M. Castells). The empirical data come from a focus group with young social media users (aged 20–30). The method of analysis is thematic coding. The results show that cancel culture is perceived ambivalently: as a tool of justice and as a form of emotional pressure; as a way to maintain moral order and as digital violence. Central themes include the instability of moral boundaries, fear of being canceled, and the influence of algorithmically amplified emotional reactions. Cancel culture appears as a normalized element of everyday digital morality, where justice is formed situationally, fragmentarily, and affectively. The article concludes that moral expectations and sensitivity are undergoing significant transformation under conditions of platform-mediated interaction.