Twitter Challenges Political Violence Tool Of The Gov't

With the wide online circulation of leaked phone conversations implicating government officials and high-profile business moguls, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has designated Twitter as one of his many “enemies.”
Phone leaks have revealed various scandals, most of which concern allegations which led to the ongoing major corruption and bribery investigation. The investigation became public on Dec. 17 with early morning police raids, leading to the resignation of four ministers in the Erdoğan government. Access to Twitter was blocked in Turkey from March 20 to early April after Prime Minister Erdoğan, speaking at a public rally, accused the social media company of failing to abide by Turkish court orders. The ban was not revoked until the country's Constitutional Court ruled it was unconstitutional on April 3. Erdoğan, exasperated by the court decision, said he would comply with it but that he doesn't "respect it." Erdoğan called social media platforms a “menace to society” and promised crowds at his rallies that he would "show Turkey's might and root out Twitter.” YouTube has not been accessible in Turkey since March 27, after a voice recording of top-level Turkish officials discussing a possible cross-border operation into Syria was leaked on the video-sharing site.

According to Taraf daily columnist Ümit Aslanbay, use of Twitter has changed much of Turkey's social scene. In his Thursday piece, Aslanbay said that using violence to quell dissent is a right to which governments claim to be entitled. Aslanbay pointed out that most administrations try to draft laws in line with their attitudes, but the Turkish government bestows an additional right to itself as it sees no harm in violating its own legislation. “State officials do not feel obligated to act by the book, which they themselves have written. It writes another book, if necessary,” Aslanbay commented. The columnist also stated that there is a “silent form of violence” currently pursued by the government. “Evading this pressure through celebrity news, sports, humor or implication has been very well-known to Turkish media for a long time. But this is a stance adopted by a defeated protester. This is like acknowledging the defeat and shouting a slogan while a baton is being broken on your head, harming or killing yourself,” Aslanbay said.

Aslanbay said that Twitter has opened a new page in Turkey in terms of the ongoing clash between the government and civil society/new media, like it has done in many other countries. “Twitter users took the tool of ‘political violence' monopolized by the government from its hands with 140 characters and they defeated the government. The counter-violence by Twitter users was virtual, but it was perceived by the government as if it was harsh and real,” Aslanbay wrote. Following the widespread use of Twitter, the state of Turkey has resorted to its tool of violence by blocking access to Twitter and YouTube, then it started to justifying what it did through notions such as treason, the unity of the nation and online insults against Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Aslanbay said. However, it was apparent that the ban would not work, which eventually proved to be the case, Aslanbay added.

Tarık Toros, a columnist with Bugün daily, wrote on Thursday that the Twitter and YouTube bans are part of image work by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). “The goal is obvious: To prevent every possible negative comment about the government,” Toros explained. Another leg of this image work is creating a homogenous media and claiming the daily circulation of pro-government newspapers to be ten times higher than it really is, Toros noted, adding that “the Internet, which is an alternative platform to the traditional media, has been restricted by arbitrary decisions.”

GÜNAY HİLAL AYGÜN (Cihan/Today's Zaman)