Cancel culture

Author's name: Montaser Al-Hasnawi

This book is the first of its kind in the Arab world to address a new phenomenon: "cancel culture." While the number of researchers in the field of cancel culture has increased globally, the concept remains almost absent in the Arab context. The book explores this culture as it has evolved from a marginal topic to a transdisciplinary one, and its impact on social dynamics, the media, politics, and the behavior of political parties, leaders, institutions, and corporations. It also indicates the emergence of a new authority: the rise of fan cultures in contemporary media environments. It demonstrates that placing "cancel culture" in diverse international contexts demonstrates that it has become a global phenomenon. Social media discourse and the responses of various governments, such as China, the United States, Germany, and Italy, illustrate how both cancel culture and discourses around cancel culture have become explicitly intertwined with nationalism, politics, and electoral contests at the national and international levels. Studying this new culture is part of the goal of the Center for Monitoring and Countering Hate Speech at Masarat Foundation, to highlight a variety of issues related to social media, most notably: hate speech, misinformation, violent extremism, and finally, the book’s crucial topic of cancel culture.