Quote Originally Posted by chrisp_1927 View Post
It's generally used to try and shut down debate by eliminating the introduction of context to a discussion. In this case, 'whataboutery' has been chucked in to try to deflect personal criticism
Clearly it depends on how it's actually used. But it can accurately describe an attempt to avoid having to directly refute an argument by instead attempting to divert and discredit. This actually happens a lot in my experience.