Turkey’s Twitter Ban and Social Media Demonization as a Strategy

I wrote about why it doesn’t work–The day the Turkish government banned itself from Twitter.

But here’s what I do know. The president of Turkey had to circumvent a court order to tweet, and tens of thousands of citizens were right there to talk with him, give him support, chide him for his previous acts, and to generally comment. Twitter may be banned in Turkey legally, but in reality, the only thing that the government has managed to do is ban its own supporters from Twitter… (read more here)

I also wrote about why it doesn’t matter that many people will circumvent: Why everyone is getting Turkey’s Twitter ban wrong. (The point is to demonize social media, not any false belief that it is possible to totally kill information).

During the rally, Erdogan also talked about the threat social media, including Facebook and YouTube, poses to family values. He talked about its disruption of privacy, and how these foreign companies do not obey Turkish court orders but obey US and European courts.

In other words, Erdogan’s strategy is to demonize social media.

It is a strategy of placing social media outside the sacred sphere, as a disruption of family, as a threat to unity, as an outside blade tearing at the fabric of society. (read more here)