Turkey Looking to Take Control of Social Media

Turkey is in the middle of a struggle between its government and its citizens and, like many such struggles in recent times, the presence of social media has been a major factor in the protesting classes’ ability to get their message out and organize.  Unfortunately, that power that it holds is threatening to the government and so Turkey, learning the lesson of other Arab Spring revolts, has decided to directly attack the source of that power.

Prime Minister Erdogan, in yet another paranoid outburst, has stated his own opinions on social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook.  He says that they are filled with lies and false news, are being used to manipulate and insult people and are a danger to justice in general.  Well, all of that sounds about right to me, aside from the last statement.  Sounds like maybe Erdogan is getting trolled and just doesn’t know how to deal with it.  Of course, I would argue that the opposite statements are true as well.  Likely, Erdogan is upset because he prefers that his government have the monopoly on deception, manipulation and the spreading of false news.

The result of the Turkish government’s hatred of social media has so far been a handful of arrests, targeting people that post anti-government messages and using the anti-terrorism laws to justify the arrests.  The next step will be to put more social media controls into effect, including the banning of “fake” accounts.  Of course, this will be little more than an attempt to get all users to sign up for accounts with their genuine personal information, thus enabling the government to find and arrest them more easily when they make unwanted statements.

Putting the pinch on social media is a very bad sign in the way the Turkish problems are developing.  Social media is one of the only ways that the world gets to see the truth of what’s going on in the country, the proof of the government’s honesty or lies.  Taking control of this is similar to what China does to cripple the power of their own social media and would be very bad for Erdogan’s cause.  It may help him maintain control in the short-term, but it will demonize him with the rest of the world and make a joke of any claims to democracy that the country makes.

Of course, those in power in Turkey are defending the move, trying to distance it from comparisons to China and make it seem as if what they are doing is no different from what countries in the West do (a popular deflection technique among Turkish politicians these days).  In reality, it just makes Erdogan and his supporters look even more paranoid and does nothing to bolster people’s faith in him as a leader.

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