Dr. Titley : With Social Media Comes Opportunities For Hate Speech

Irish scholar Dr. Gavan Titley spoke to an audience addressing "hate speech" in social media at Boğazici University in İstanbul in a program presented in partnership with the Hrant Dink Foundation on Thursday.

His presentation entitled, “The circulation of ‘hate ‘in a hybrid media environment: System, context and content,” addressed hate speech in popular media, particularly social media. Titley's research focused on not just the use of hate speech but the qualifications for hate speech.

Titley explained that social media is commonly accepted as the largest and most accessible platform for hate speech. Most common social media websites, especially Twitter and Facebook, which are becoming sources for news and are free for anyone with access to internet, the hegemony over who addresses the general public is naturally disintegrating. Although, Titley argued that there is still hegemony to some degree within social media that comes from the “power” or “importance” of a person – as measured by their followers.

With the boom of social media also comes a grey area between what is professional, what is social and what is political, explained the scholar. Another aspect about the uncertainty of hate speech is that while hate speech is a legal matter, it is also a sensual matter, according to Titley. He explained that if there is a statement that one sees on the internet and if that same statement was written on a wall and you see it when walking down the street, and it is offensive and discriminatory to the extent that it infringes on one freedom or the right for security, then it should be considered hate speech.

The issue of hegemony in social media and hate speech is a matter that occurs often in Turkish politics. Only last week, Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek made provocative remarks concerning Kurds, Armenians and atheists on his Twitter page.

The mayor tweeted, “Peace to the Kurds in the east who are putting their lives on the line for the nation [Turkey] and solidarity and for Islam.” In his next tweet, Gökçek continued, “But there are those posing as Kurds that are actually Armenian atheists... (By the way, I absolve our Armenian brothers and sisters that are citizens of their nation.)” In this message, the Mayor referred to “hidden” Armenians who pretended to be Muslim Kurds in the Dersim mountains to avoid persecution during the massacres of Armenians in 1915.

Mayor Gökçek received a lot of negative feedback and was criticized for making discriminatory remarks against Armenians and atheists. Gökçek also illustrates the hegemony that Titley referred to for although Gökçek is using Twitter -- a free, social media platform -- he currently has 2.09 million followers; therefore he holds a greater chance of being heard, and to be heard is to have power, according to Titley.

In August, a similar incident involving racist comments came from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. During a television broadcast on Star TV and NTV, President Erdoğan said: “Let all Turks in Turkey say they are Turks and all Kurds say they are Kurds. What is wrong with that? You wouldn't believe the things they have said about me. They have said I am Georgian ... they have said even uglier things -- they have called me Armenian, but I am Turkish.” Criticisms were raised about Erdoğan's assertion that being Armenian is “uglier” than being Georgian.

In his comments, Erdoğan defends his Turkish identity by debasing remarks that called him Georgian or Armenian, therefore taking pride in his Turkish identity. Dr. Titley explained on Thursday, that hate speech is often the result of love. He remarked: “Hate in terms of nationalism, or hate in terms of anti-feminism, always starts from a declaration of love. I don't actually hate them, but I love my country or I love my identity or I love my language and I'm forced to hate them because what they [foreigners] have done to me.” In this way, Erdoğan is putting down other ethnic groups because he shows that he holds his Turkishness at greater value and to be considered an Armenian would be insulting for him.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)