Social Media and Moral Communication: Sociocybernetic and Systems-Theoretical Perspectives

Social media have become major arenas for moral judgment, public blame, indignation, solidarity, and reputational sanction. Yet the apparent affinity between digital communication and the recurrent mobilization of morality remains insufficiently explained. This session invites conceptual and empirical contributions that examine, from sociocybernetic and systems-theoretical perspectives, why moral communication becomes especially salient, reproducible, and consequential on social media.

The session asks whether social media merely amplify pre-existing moral conflicts or transform the conditions under which morality is communicated, observed, and generalized. By bringing together sociocybernetics, social systems theory, and research on digital communication, it aims to clarify the mechanisms, limits, and societal consequences of the mobilization of morality in contemporary online environments.