Turkey, having one of the highest number of ac-tive Twitter users anywhere in the World, also experienced social unrest during the Gezi park protests in the summer of 2013. These events have brought question marks about individual liberties in Turkey. It was highly debated whether Turkey was truly the model democracy it boast-Social protests after the debated presidential elections in Iran that began in 2009 and continued into 2010,
were some of the first instances of the use of Twitter by young protesters in the Middle East.
ed to be for the rest of the Middle East. While the government often took the position that the pro-tests were similar to other #Occupy movements in Western metropolitan centers, critics accused the extreme police brutality as being dispropor-tional. Twitter in particular was used as a source of information and as a way of informing the rest of the world about what was going on. To which, pro-government sources argue that they were in fact greatly manipulated by ‘external forces’.
Social Media platforms such as Twitter and Face-book have been widely used by the protestors in Turkey during the Gezi Park protests across the country. In addition to communication, these were used also for mobilization, preparation and organization of the protests. This was in large part because the information of the “Tweets”
were in real-time and not subject to government regulation. Online arguments and counter-argu-ments over Tweeter and Facebook became al-most everyday practice between online activists and pro-government youth. For instance, and infamous and racist tweet by a Turkish Olym-pic Medalist Wrestler became one of the focal points on how the government supporters and protesters viewed the events differently.10 The wrestler made insulting tweets on his Twitter account, which was later removed. He was still sanctioned to a 6 month ban by the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles-FILA, due to his racist comment against Armenians and insults against the protestors. Ironically and controversially, this wrestler was designated to be the flag bearer during the commencement of the Mediterranean games in Mersin, Turkey the same summer. While protesters saw them-selves as righteously protesting against a govern-ment with some authoritarian inclinations and police brutality, pro government sentiment was that the protesters were the result of foreign pro-vocateurs that intended to manipulate the do-mestic politics of Turkey and to harm its stable economy and they were not representative of the mainstream of the Turkish society.
One of the focal points was when Turkish Prime Minister directly targeted Twitter by calling it a
‘trouble’.11 These and many other controversies
took place and against sporadically emerging masses, Twitter, being a platform in real-time communications and with no censuring, became the item of choice.
Conclusion
Twitter’s rise in popularity around the world co-incided with the Arab Spring as well as many im-portant social events such as the Gezi protests and the Social Justice Movement. Many, includ-ing Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, expressed the role of twitter as a headache.12 However, it is a platform used widely by both PM Erdogan and his supporters. Many government agencies and ministries in Turkey have active Official Twitter accounts, and perhaps most interest-ing among them is the Directorate of Religious Affairs (The Diyanet Isleri Baskanligi), which makes announcements also on its Twitter ac-count, including the appointment of its person-nel.13 Hence while called a source of trouble, it is not something that the Turkish government can easily forego as it is a new media form which helps to disseminate information. Then there is the broader issue that came to mind following such protests. Twitter’s beauty and its advan-tage is that it is in Real Time and it is putting emphasis on brevity. Protestors claimed that is it was a source for their freedom of expression and avoiding censorship. Yet, by contrast, such un-edited forms of mass information can be used to disseminate disinformation, junk and malware, along with the useful truths. There is certainly a thin line between regulation and censorship, and it should be an issue that the Information and Telecommunication Technologies Authority (Bilgi Teknolojileri ve Iletisim Kurumu – BTK) should consider carefully. On one hand there is a responsibility to regulate the use of the Internet, and to protect families and minors against usag-es of the Internet that are almost universally ac-cepted as being harmful (for example child por-nography). On the other hand, critics may fear that such attempts to “regulate” could be used as pretexts for censoring. The issue with Twit-ter is that unlike Facebook and Google, TwitTwit-ter does not have a local office in Turkey that was founded according to Turkish law and is subject to Turkish rules and regulations.
The use of such real-time messaging is surely ex-pected to continue as the socio-political devel-opments in the Middle East evolve. New tech-nology, as it becomes available, would influence the format of this kind of information dissemi-nation but the use of alternative communication avenues would continue. It will be interesting to see how the newly launched real-time
broad-casting smart phones will be incorporated into this phenomenon. And perhaps, just as the big-gest competitor of Twitter has perhaps not yet been invented, the biggest trouble that Twitter and other social media sites would give to Mid-dle Eastern governments has also perhaps not yet been invented.
O
1 Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (https://twitter.com/RT_Erdogan) had 3,562,562 Followers on Twitter as of Sunday 27 October 2013 05:05 (GMT+2 Istanbul).
2 Case providing a brief history of Twitter as a startup: “ENTREPRENEURS AT TWITTER: Building a Brand, A So-cial Tool Or A Tech Powerhouse? ” Case written by Ken Mark under supervision of Prof. Simon Parker. Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario. Simon Parker and Ken Mark, Entrepreneurs at Twit-ter: Building a Brand, a Social Tool or a Tech Powerhouse? (Ivey Publishing, 2013) Available online in Ivey Cases:
https://www.iveycases.com/ProductView.aspx?id=37355
3 Ibid. (Case providing a brief history of Twitter as a startup: “ENTREPRENEURS AT TWITTER: Building a Brand, A Social Tool Or A Tech Powerhouse? ” Case written by Ken Mark under supervision of Prof. Simon Parker.) Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario. https://www.iveycases.com/ProductView.
aspx?id=37355
4 CBSNEWS.COM “Twitter add revenue to double in 2013” March 17, 2013 http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505124_162-57576633/forecast-twitter-ad-revenue-to-double-in-2013/ Accessed Saturday 26 October 2013 15:10 PM (GMT+2)
5 Alarabiya.net: “Rihanna the ‘rude girl?’ Fans angry after star’s mosque photo shoot” 20 October 2013, ( http://
english.alarabiya.net/en/variety/2013/10/20/Rihanna-the-rude-girl-Fans-angry-after-star-s-mosque-photo-shoot-.html ) Accessed Sunday 27 October 2013, 10:05 (GMT +2)
6 Philly.Com : “Twitter and other services create cracks in Gadhafi’s media fortress” by John Timpane, 28 Febru-ary 2011, (http://articles.philly.com/2011-02-28/news/28637707_1_moammar-gadhafi-diaspora-fortress) Ac-cessed 26 September 2013, 22:20 (GMT +2)
7 BBC; “Twitter Takes off in Saudi- and other news of social media in the Arab world” by Damian Radcliff, 1 Au-gust 2013, ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/blogcollegeofjournalism/posts/Twitter-takes-off-in-Saudi-and-other-news-of-social-media-in-the-Arab-world- ) Accessed 27 September 2013, 10:25 (GMT+2)
8 CNBCE.COM “Twitter 2014 başında halka açılır” Güncelleme: 16. 09. 2013 08:08 TSİ
9 (http://www.cnbce.com/yasam-ve-teknoloji/sosyal-medya/twitter-2014-basinda-halka-acilir) Accessed 25 September 2013, 20:30 (GMT+2) CNET.COM (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57575002-93/twitter-tak-ing-over-the-middle-east/) and EMARKETER.COM( http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Middle-East-Twitter-Rules/1009737 ) Accessed 26 September 2013, 20:40 and 20:45 (GMT+2)
10 Hurriyet Daily News; “Turkish Wrestler Suspended Six Months for Racist Tweets.” August 11 2013 (http://www.hur-riyetdailynews.com/turkish-wrestler-suspended-six-months-for-racist-tweets.aspx?pageID=238&nid=52320 ).
Accessed 26 September 2013, 22:35 (GMT+2)
11 Ntvmsnbc.Com “Erdogan: Twitter denilen bir bela var” 2 June 2013. (http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/id/25446690/ ) Accessed 25 September 2013, 21:40 (GMT+2)
12 Ibid. (Ntvmsnbc.Com “Erdogan: Twitter denilen bir bela var” 2 June 2013. (http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/
id/25446690/ ) Accessed 25 September 2013, 21:40 (GMT+2) ).
13 Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı Basın ve Halkla İlişkiler Müşavirliği Resmi Sayfası (https://twitter.com/diyanetbasin ) Accessed 27 September 2013, 11:40 (GMT+2).