THE NEED FOR A TECHNO-SOCIAL POLICY ON NEW MEDIA LITERACY

by Prof.Dr. Mutlu Binark
Hacettepe University Faculty of Communication  Department of Radio, Television and Cinema, Faculty of Communication Faculty Member binark@hacettepe.edu.tr

by Gözde Çoklu

It is now evident that new media have become an inseparable part of our daily routines. We are living in a new social eco-system. It is possible to say that in this new social eco-system, the boundaries between online and offline worlds have become blurred. In fact, media applications have been affecting our offline relations and experiences in different ways. New media have even changed the way we socialize and social relations have become more within a certain flow running through the interface. As danah boyd puts it, we are experiencing life within a networked public (2014: 8-9) formed by new media. Following boyd, we can explain the features of networked public as follows: First, interconnected technologies form a space. This space makes it possible for people to spend time together. Today it is hardly news that many people sit in a café, lobby or park using their smart phones or tablets to get in touch, spend time and chat with their friends in their networks. They socialize through networks. They announce that they are going to join an event. They like their friends’ sharing. They retweet posts. What these people are doing is, in fact, to share a moment they experience through an interface. Second, an imaginary community is constructed as an intersection of people, technologies and practices. This imaginary community connects people through loose or tight links in not only online but also offline worlds. As Bruce Hood emphasizes in his eye-opening work, social networks play an important role in an individual’s self-construction (2014). Therefore, it can be stated that existing and creating a profile on social networks are the practices that satisfy our needs to be liked and to have our ego approved.

We can understand that new media are an “integral” part of our daily routines and practices also when we consider our need to be constantly online and join the network even while we are in action (Hinton & Hjörth, 2013). In the new social eco-system, we experience our existence by producing contents in a continuous flow, being visible in case of possible viewers/users, sharing and disseminating the content we produce and the content we receive from others and looking for a content we like…In this new social eco-system, users are enabled and encouraged to customize their content. Thus, they increasingly produce their own content. As Manuel Castells puts it, there is self mass-communication, which means that individuals share content among each other and with the masses (2013). Such phenomena make us discuss and conceptualize topics such as participatory culture (Behmann & Lomborg 2012; Jenkins & Couldry, 2014), citizen journalism, trolls, hate speech (Binark & Bayraktutan 2013), the role of users in informational capitalism as intangible labor (Fuchs, 2014), data mining and the content produced by users for the big data. It is important to think about and analyze our existence and experiences on new media through various conceptual and theoretical sets and instruments. Otherwise, either some epic techno-deterministic polices would be produced or moral panic would be started through discourse demonizing new media by especially political actors and mainstream media…

by Gözde Çoklu

2014 Information Society Statistics of Turkish Statistics Institute show that individuals are using computers and the Internet more and more. Based on these statistics, it is now easier to make statements such as “Turkey is evolving into an information and network society” and “We provide each and every child with a tablet”. However, if we consider the concept of digital gap, which shows us the inequalities in using ICT among people of different geographies, genders, social statuses and ethnic origins, we can see that there is nearly a 20% difference between the use of the Internet in Istanbul and Marmara region and the Southeastern Anatolia. It is possible to observe the gender inequalities in Turkey in the use of information technologies, too. For instance, one of the table of these statistics shows that there is a difference of 20% between women and men in the use of computer and the Internet and this difference is to the detriment of women. Similarly, there is a digital gap between different generations. All these inequalities once more prove that new media literacy should cover all individuals in the society.

As it can be seen in the table, digital gap has not disappeared. On the contrary, as long as the current economic, social and cultural inequalities remain, the inequalities in the use of ICT will continue to exist, too. There is no doubt that the inequalities in ICT usage are fed by neo-liberal economic policies dominating all spheres of social life including business, education, health as well as cultural and political participation. Such inequalities are also related to conservative public administration practices. Therefore, it is not possible to discuss or solve these inequalities without considering such practices.

Accordingly, we can outline the chronic problems of new media in Turkey as follows: First, an amendment was made in the Internet Act numbered 5651 in February 2014. With this amendment, Telecommunication Directorate is now authorized to block access to any web site – without any verdict- within 4 hours on the grounds that the website in question violates personal rights and dignity. Second, Internet Service Providers are obliged to enforce the URL or IP based bans on websites as stipulated by Telecommunication Directorate. Thus, a panoptic Internet infrastructure is being established. In other words, deep package inspection is justified and normalized. It is obvious the way the right to information and freedom of expression is currently exercised on the Internet is in conflict with an ideal society and ideal policies (https://yenimedya.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/turkeys-new-internet-law-is-the-first-step-toward-surveillance-society-says-cyberlaw-expert/).
As it is known, United Nations had the Rapporteur Frank La Rue prepare a report on the protection of the freedom of opinion and expression on May 16, 2011 (1). Both this report and the agenda 69 (b) presented in the 68th General Assembly Meeting of United Nations on September 4, 2013 underline the public’s right to information and open governance. In these reports, it is stated that not only does the Internet improve individuals’ freedom of opinion and expression through its specific and transformative structure but it also contributes to the development of an entire society. In this context, the right to access the Internet is seen as a fundamental human right. However, the government of Justice and Development Party (shortened as AKP in Turkish) and its opinion leaders demonized the citizens who shared posts and enjoyed their right to obtain and disseminate information during and after Gezi Park protests in June 2013. They tried to explain and trivialize citizens’ use of the Internet during this process through conspiracy theories. During the Corruption Operation targeting AKP government on December 17, 2013, some illegal video tapes were shared on Twitter and YouTube. In response to this, Erdoğan, the Prime Minister of the time labelled social networks as a “pain in the neck” and pointed them as a target. After that, Telecommunication Directorate working under the Ministry of Transport, Maritime and Communications banned access to Twitter and YouTube respectively (2). As it can be seen, citizens’ existence on social networks is “under surveillance” and the judicial system and public administration are actively involved in this surveillance. This techno-political policy is also supported by AKP government and its opinion leaders who target the Internet and social media with their demonizing discourse (Binark and Bayraktutan, 2014)(3). This demonizing discourse unfortunately ignores our society’s need for an educational campaign which would be based on lifelong learning and supported by many stakeholders to ensure qualified use of new media. Other chronic problems in new media can be listed as follows: There is a monopoly in the network infrastructure of TürkTelekom, which is a problem of political economy. In parallel with the security/securitization discourse, which positions each and every single individual as a usual suspect, all domains of daily life are put to various surveillance technologies and data twinning by commercial organizations such as NetClean and Phorm (https://yenimedya.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/alternative-informatics-associations-censorship-and-digital-surveillance-in-tuekey-country-report-september-2014/). Data twins are constantly being created in digital data bases. As a result, we are unable to claim our right to our digital bodies (Ball et al.2012, 2014). On top of this, there is no law on the protection of personal data in Turkey.
Briefly, there are problems about freedom of expression and the right to information resulting from legal and political practices. There are problems about the objectivity of networks because of the ownership of network infrastructures. There are also problems about our rights to use and protect our personal data, which result from the new governance policy. Apart from these problems, citizens also create problems in their capacity as users. One of the most significant problems related to user-driven content production in Turkey is that on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, there is a hate speech against different sexual identity orientations, minorities, sectarian associations, Kurds, politicians of People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and Syrian refugees . For instance, on Twitter, the hate speech targeting Syrian refugees(4) can clearly be seen with the hashtag “#wedontwantanysyrians”. The hate speech against politicians working for HDP and Kurdish citizens can be seen in any search with the “#kobani” hashtag.
Another problem about quality content production is that new media are fed unidimensionally. When one says new media, what comes to the mind of children and young people is generally the same: Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, What’s App, Instagram and vine. That there is a uniformed approach to social media among the youth proves that there is a deprivation in new media literacy. When someone wants to search something, they simply “google” it. What they miss is that Google, which is a search engine, lists the results which “fit our profile” the best based on out input. In doing so, Google uses our digital free labor to create its own value. On the other hand, Wikipedia is a crowdsource, the content of which is produced by us (5). Internet users should be aware of this distinction:Google uses us… Otherwise, we will continue to obtain information unidimensionally. In fact, accessing or owning new media tools does not suffice to remove the digital gap in the society. As Eszter Hargittai underlines it, there are sharp inequalities among citizens in terms of digital skills (2010). Hargittai suggests that the term “digital natives” should be given up because such a definition prevents us from seeing the inequalities between children and young people in terms of digital skills. Similarly, boyd argues that there are digital naives not digital natives among children and young people (2014:196-198). Thus, boyd proposes that basic education about new media practices be combined with life-long learning. Given the digital gap between men and women, among different regions and people at different ages in Turkey, it is possible to argue that there is an urgent need for a new techno-social policy to improve new media literacy skills of the aging population and women and to include these people in the new eco-system.
Digital skills that must be acquired within new media literacy include knowledge and strategic skills about production, writing, participation, security of personal accounts, privacy and ethical behavior on social networks. For example, the Final Report of EU Kids Online has revealed that European children use the Internet as passive consumers. They generally play games and use the Internet for entertainment (EU Kids Online Final Recommendations for Policy, September 2014). It is possible to say that this finding is also applicable to Turkish children and the young.

Following the chronic problems, it would finally be promising to list some positive developments in new media literacy for policy-making: There has been an increase in the user-driven content since Gezi Park protests. There is also an increase in alternative media applications and citizen journalism with websites such as 140 Journos, Dokuz Sekiz Haber, Çapul TV, Seyri Sokak, and Ankara Eylem Vakti. After the bans on Twitter and YouTube, citizens learned how to use VPN, TOR and Torrent and how to change DNS settings. Alternative Informatics Association organized a workshop on “New Media Literacy Curriculum Development” with the support of Unicef Turkey on April 11, 2014 in Ankara. Curriculum development units were created for children, adolescents and adults. During IGF 2014, Alternative Informatics Association organized Internet Ungovernance Forum with diverse non-governmental organizations from Turkey and the world (https://iuf.alternatifbilisim.org/). During this forum, participants discussed the freedom of governance of the Internet around the globe, objectivity of networks, digital gap and digital surveillance. On February 26-27, 2015, there was a 2nd National Conference of New Media Studies on the main theme of organized by Alternative Informatics Association and Kadir Has University. The Declaration of the Conference was published in: https://wordpress.com/post/8481561/3869/.

Based on these problems and following UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a techno-social policy about new media literacy which handles inequalities among people of different ages, social statuses and genders and which targets the children, young and adults in Turkey must immediately be developed and this policy must be carried into effect with the contribution of many stakeholders including but not limited to academy, public institutions and non-governmental organizations. To this end, there should be a stronger cooperation among non-governmental organizations. The opinions of children and young people should be taken into consideration in planning how to improve new media literacy skills because they are the active subjects in this field. Interactive trainings must be developed to help citizens enjoy online opportunities and protect themselves from online threats. Transparency of all actors to be involved in policy-making should be guaranteed. Life-long learning policies should be developed to make sure that all citizens can become a part of this new social eco-system. There should be more micro and macro interdisciplinary field studies that can comparatively reveal the differences between generations, genders and regions.
Bibliography:
Ball, K., K.D.Haggerty and D.Lyon (2012, 2014) (Eds.) Routledge Handbook of Surveillance Studies. London: Routledge.
Bechmann, A. and S.Lomborg (2012) “Mapping actor roles in social media: Different perspectives on value creation in theories of user participation”, New Media & Society, 1-17.
Binark, M. and G. Bayraktutan (2013) Ayın Karanlık Yüzü:Yeni Medya ve Etik. İstanbul:Kalkedon.
Binark, M. and G.Bayraktutan (2014) “Twitter as a new battlefield”, a paper presented at XVIII WORLD CONGRESS OF SOCIOLOGY, RC 47 Session “Social Media And Collective Identities In The New Activisms”. 13-19 July 2014 Yokohama-Japan.
boyd, d. (2014) It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Castells, M. (2013) Umut ve İsyan Ağları:İnternet Çağında Toplumsal Hareketler. İstanbul: Koç Ünv.Yayınları.
Declaration of the 2nd National New Media Studies Conference February 27th 2015 https://wordpress.com/post/8481561/3869/
EU Kids Online Project (2014) EU Kids Online Final Recommendations for Policy, September 2014 .
Fuchs, C. (2014). Social Media. A Critical Introduction.London: Sage.
Hargittai, E. (2010) “Digital Na(t)ives? Variation in Internet Skills and Uses Among Members of the ‘Net Generaton’”, Sociological Inquiry, 80: 92-113.
Hinton, S. and L. Hjorth (2013). Understanding Social Media. London: Sage. 1,2,3,4,7 ve 8. Bölümler.
Hood, B. (2014) Benlik Yanılsaması: Sosyal Beyin, Kimliği Nasıl Oluşturur? İstanbul: Ayrıntı. 282-323.
Livingstone, S. (2014) “Digital Media and Children’s Right” http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mediapolicyproject/2014/09/12/sonia-livingstone-digital-media-and-childrens-rights/. Access November 2, 2014.
Jenkins, H. and N. Couldry (204) “Participations: Dialogues on the Participatory Promise of Contemporary Culture and Politics”, International Journal of Communication, 8, 1107-1112.

Endnotes:

1. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression Frank La Rue, in his annual report to UN Human Rights Council in 2011 (A/HRC/17/27 Geneva:OHCHR, 16 May, 2011).
2. After Yaman Akdeniz and Kerem Altıparmak used their right to apply to the Constitutional Court, the ban on Twitter and YouTube was removed by the Court on the grounds that ’banning the access to such networks is a violation of the right to information and freedom of expression. https://yenimedya.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/eu-welcomes-end-of-twitter-ban-but-worries-persist/
3. For example, Prime Minister Erdoğan himself labelled social media as “a pain in the neck” in a TV program he attended in June 2nd 2013. He said that “There is a pain in the neck called Twitter. You can find all the lies and exaggeration here. To me, social media is a pain in the neck”. Similarly, Ali Şahin, AKP’s Vice President in charge of Social Media made the following statement: “Social media is a tool full of lies and slander. It is much more dangerous than a bomb-laden vehicle. The latest developments have proven that there is a need to regulate social media”. See:

by Gözde Çoklu

http://www.radikal.com.tr/politika/basbakan_erdogan_twitter_denen_bir_bela_var-1135952, Access Date: 14.06.2014.

4.For hate speech and its types on social networks in Turkey, please see: https://yenimedya.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/using-social-media-for-hate-speech-is-not-freedom-of-expression.
5. Regarding this, Siva Vaidhyanathan concludes that “we are not Google’s customers:we are its product” in her work titled The Googlization of Everything (2011:3). This shows that such free software is the main source of users’ value creation.

Declaration of the 2nd National New Media Studies Conference February 27th 2015

New media literacy has become a key concept due to the widespread existence and importance of Internet politically, socially, culturally and economically. We need to consider the fact that access to the Internet and new media is a fundamental citizen’s right.
New media literacy requires that one has the knowledge and skills to use new media as well as is aware of affordances and potential risks presented by new media. In addition, as part of new media literacy, citizens need to develop attitudes to deploy new media from an ethical and right-based perspective.
New media is not just a technical or pedagogical matter. Rather, it is a political stance, which aims to establish active and participatory citizenship, democratic and pluralist social and political system and a communicative platform that is free from prejudice and hatred. In this sense, new media literacy is a multidimensional and multi-party process situated at the center of many disciplines, concerns, individuals and institutions.
The subject of this concept are not passive consumers but rather active and participatory citizens who are able to construct a critical relationship with media texts, as well as possess the skills to produce their own content and media. New media literate are active and productive citizens are able to circulate their own language and discourses. New media literate citizens have the ability to interrogate the codes and social agreements.
This type of new media literacy is an attempt to gain awareness with respect to the protection of information voluntarily digitally produced by individuals against political and commercial interests. At the same time, it plays a fundamental role with respect to the formation and maintenance of a communication environment free from pressure, censorship and surveillance measures.
Not limited to these, new media literate citizens question alienated relationships with technology, specifically new media technologies and aims to replace this relationship with curiosity, creativity, production and criticism.
New media literacy can be implemented through macro and micro politics and contributes to the citizens’ ability to have power over their everyday lives and political decisions. It is comprised of liberatory practices that create alternative forms of communication and spaces, as well as promoting free software. It is important to develop a culture of do it yourself and hacking in this regard. In contextual terms, it involves collaborative regulation vis-à-vis surveillance policies. Literacy needs to be constructed with an understanding that is far from disciplining children through bans, as well as an understanding that approaches children as subjects rather than objectifying. It is necessary to defend new media as spaces open to free speech and as spaces within which children can practice defense of rights.
We need to think of this concept and literature on new media literacy as part of education policies in general, integrate with each phase of education, and nationally popularize on every age level.
Similarly, in order to struggle with hate speech and cyber-bullying, the affordances of new media should be deployed against the dangers created by new media with the aim of attaining a more humane, solidaristic and collaborative discourse.
Departing from the understanding that technology does not have a political mind on its own and constitutes a realm of hegemonic struggle for political interests, new media literacy is constructed as a political tool in the fight against digital divide of all kinds. It needs to be a political tool for struggling against all kinds of generational, regional, cultural divides across identity, socieatal and class lines.
New media literacy is comprised of a mental transformation that targets gender discrimination. Fighting against digital divide based on gender discrimination can also be used as a political method to struggle against gender based discrimination.
It is vital to promote quantitative and qualitative studies to accumulate knowledge in relation to media literacy of all kinds. It is important to increase research funds in this direction and involve the participation of partners towards the goal of developing a science policy. The role of the academic is important as far as knowledge production is concerned.
Prepared by Alternative Informatics Association
2nd National New Media Studies Conference, held in Kadir Has University, İstanbul

http://www.yenimedya.org.tr

Social Media and Trolling Phenomenon

Research Project, (ID 741) supported by Hacettepe University Scientific Research Committee, has been just completed. The research team are Mutlu Binark, Şule Karataş, Eray Koca and Tuğrul Çomu. This project focuses on the troll phenomenon which is becoming a significant social problem on social media environments. Trolling can be defined as producing, sharing and spreading manipulative content on social media environments through both the information shared/used/consumed on the medium and the public included in the web by mostly anonymous accounts. Trolling phenomenon is analyzed in this study under the following topics: the etimology of the word; types of trolls and trolling; the ways of doing and targets of trolls; struggling strategies against trolling. This project will be the first large scaled field research on this issue. During the project, two different research techniques are used followed by the literature review: (1) Detection of sample troll accounts on Twitter interface, interface analysis and conduction thematic content analysis to the captured relevant content; (2) in depth interview with various experts on the field of new media such as academicians, professionals of new media industry and lawyers specialized on IT/Informatics. This study evaluate whether developing new media literacy would be a struggle strategy against trolling on social media environments according to the experts’ opinion.

Sosyal Medya ve Trolük Olgusu Araştırması…..

Hacettepe Üniversitesi BAP Birimi tarafından desteklenen Proje ID:781 ve Proje Başlığı:SOSYAL MEDYA VE TROLLÜK OLGUSU olan araştırma projesi tamamlanmıştır. Proje araştırma ekibi; Mutlu Binark, Şule Karataş, Eray Koca ve Tuğrul Çomu‘dan oluşmaktadır.

Projenin özeti: Bu proje kapsamında sosyal medya ortamlarında önemli bir toplumsal sorun olan trol olgusu ele alınmıştır. Trollük, sosyal medya ortamlarında çoğunlukla anonim hesaplardan belli bir konuda gerek ortamda paylaşılan/kullanılan/tüketilen enformasyona, gerekse ağa dahil olmuş kamunun kendisine yönelik olarak manipülatif içerik üretimi, paylaşımı ve yayılımasında bulunmak şeklinde tanımlanabilir. Trollük olgusu bu çalışmada şu başlıklar altında incelenmiştir: trol sözcüğünün kökeni; trol türleri ve trollük biçimleri; trollüğün yapılış biçimi ve hedef kitlesi; trollükle mücadele stratejileri. Bu proje Türkiye’deki ilk kapsamlı saha çalışması olma niteliğini taşımaktadır. Projede literatür taramasına müteakip, eş an anlı olarak iki farklı araştırma yöntemi işe koşulmuştur: (1) Twitter arayüzeyinde örnek trol hesaplarının tespiti ve hesap içeriklerine uygulanacak arayüzey analizi ve tematik içerik analizi (2) yeni medya alanındaki çeşitli uzmanlar (akademisyenler, yeni medya endüstrisi profesyonelleri ve bilişim hukukçuları) ile derinlemesine görüşmeler. Çalışma sosyal medya ortamlarında trollük olgusuna yönelik olarak yeni medya okuryazarlığının geliştirilmesinin bir mücadele stratejisi olup olmadığını uzman görüşleriyle tartışmaktadır.

Yeni Bir Kitap: Direniş Çağında Türkiye’de Alternatif Medya

Barış Çoban ve Bora Ataman’ın derlediği Direniş Çağında Türkiye’de Alternatif Medya (Kafka, 2015) adlı kitap yayınlandı.

Internet Seçimlerin Adil Geçmesinin Güvencesidir

Erişim Sağlayıcıları Birliği (ESB), servis sağlayıcı firmalara bir yazı yazarak seçim gününün ertesine kadar bir teknik bir de hukukçu olmak üzere en az iki personelin 24 saat hazır bulundurmasını talep etti. Detaylara şu bağlantıdan bakılabilir:http://www.turk-internet.com/portal/yazigoster.php?yaziid=50119

ESB’nin böyle bir talepte bulunmaya yetkisinin olmaması, hatta ESB’nin gayri meşru mevcudiyeti bir yana, talebin kendisi garip ve kuşkuludur.
Bombaların patladığı, insanların öldüğü, oldukça gergin bir seçim süreci yaşadık. Seçimlerin yapılmasına saatler kaldı. Sivil inisiyatifler, seçimlere hile karıştırılmaması, oy verme ve oy sayımının kontrolü için büyük çabalar sarfediyorlar. Oy ve Ötesi, Türkiye’nin Oyları gibi gönüllü inisiyatiflerin yanısıra, CHP, MHP ve HDP kendi seçmenlerini seferber ederek seçimlerin adil olması için çabalıyorlar.
Bütün bu çabaların ortak sahası ise Internettir. Tüm bu organizasyonlar bilgi akışı ve iletişimlerini Internet aracılığı ile sürdürmekteler.
ESB’nin bu talebi, aklımıza bu çabaların sabote edilmesine aracılık edileceği şüphelerini getirmektedir.
Bu çabaları engellemeye, oy verme ve oy sayımı süresince yaşanacak gelişmeleri halktan uzak tutmaya yönelik, ilgili sitelere, sosyal medyaya verilecek erişim engellemeleri veya teknik zorbalıklar, hatta erişimin tümüyle kesintiye uğratılması, temel insan hak ve hürriyetlerinin açıkça ihlali anlamına gelecektir.
Hükümeti, ESB’yi ve Internet Servis Sağlayıcıları sorumlu davranmaya, seçimlerin adil şekilde geçemesi için çabalayan tüm yurttaşlara yardım etmeye çağırıyoruz.
Alternatif Bilişim Derneği

6 Haziran 2015

Yaymak için: https://twitter.com/altbilisim/status/607129748238573569
Görsel http://oyveotesi.org/gorsel-kaynaklar/ adresinden alınmıştır.

Internet censorship in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Turkey passed an internet censorship law in 2007 with the declared objective of protecting families and minors (Akdeniz, 2010). It established a unit within the regulator BTK (Information and Communication Technologies Authority) responsible for imposing bans and blocks on websites based on nine catalogue crimes defined by other national laws (Akgül 2008, 2009a, 2009b). As of May 2015, 80,000 websites were banned based on civil code related complaints and intellectual property rights violations, reports the independent website Engelliweb. Blocking decisions rendered by penal courts are enforced even when they are based on grounds other that the nine catalogue crimes – such as terrorism, organised crime and crime against the state. Passed in parliament while ignoring the pleas of NGOs and of the internet sector, the Internet Law No. 5651 has since been used to temporarily ban popular platforms such as Blogger, Last.fm, Vimeo, WordPress and YouTube. At the same time, some blocking decisions by the courts (e.g., Google and Facebook) were not enforced by the authorities. Since its introduction, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Law No. 5651 (Council of Europe, 2011) is against the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR, 2013). This article provides an overview of internet censorship and its social background in Turkey.

Citation & publishing information

RECEIVED: August 16, 2013 REVIEWED: November 11, 2014 PUBLISHED: June 3, 2015
LICENCE: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Germany
COMPETING INTERESTS: The author has declared that no competing interests exist that have influenced the text.
KEYWORDS: Censorship, Freedom of information, Filtering, Internet blockings, Law No. 5651
CITATION: Akgül, M. & Kırlıdoğ, M. (2015). Internet censorship in Turkey. Internet Policy Review, 4(2). DOI: 10.14763/2015.2.366

Full text: http://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/internet-censorship-turkey

Die Regierung zensiert sich das Netz zurecht

Die türkische Regierung löscht, blockt, zensiert und plant weitere Maßnahmen. Sie sei aber weniger an Strafverfolgung als an Meinungshoheit interessiert, sagen Forscher.

VON JOHANNES WENDT

“Yes, we ban” – Onlineprotest gegen die Internetzensur in der Türkei (Archivbild von 2014)  |  © Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images

Wer sich das Twitter-Profil von Recep Tayyip Erdoğan anschaut, stolpert über zwei Dinge. Zum einen sind da die zahllosen Bilder von Wahlkampfveranstaltungen. Fahnenfuchtelnde Massen, Präsident Erdoğan steht mittendrin, in Antalya, Kars und Istanbul. Er schert sich offenbar nicht um die Verpflichtung zur Neutralität in seinem Amt.

Ein zweites Mal stolpert man darüber, dass Erdoğan überhaupt twittert. Vor etwa einem Jahr hatte er noch versprochen Twitter – “die Bedrohung der Gesellschaft” – alsbald auszulöschen. Heute hat er mehr Follower als ZEIT ONLINE und die britische BBC zusammen.

Wo man Widerspruch vermutet, herrscht Kalkül. Die Wähler von Erdoğans Partei AKP wohnen vor allem in ländlichen Gegenden und nutzen traditionelle Medien wie das Fernsehen. Twitter hingegen zieht die junge Generation in den Städten an. Da haben Erdoğan und die konservative AKP Nachholbedarf. Wird die Kritik auf Twitter etwas heftiger, reagieren Tausende Trolle, die Erdoğan ergeben sind. Hinzu kommt, dass soziale Netzwerke wie Twitter ohnehin weit schwieriger zu kontrollieren sind als traditionelle Medien.

Twitter vs. Türkei

Große Teile der traditionellen Massenmedien hat die AKP unter ihrer Kontrolle, sei es durch Übernahme oder Gummiparagrafen. Erdoğan hat erst vor wenigen Tagen Can Dündar wegen Spionage angezeigt. Dündar ist Chefredakteur der regierungskritischen Zeitung Cumhuriyet.

Soziale Netzwerke und das Internet sind dagegen dezentral und weit schwieriger zu kontrollieren. Deutlich wurde das vor allem während der Gezi-Proteste: Damals teilten Demonstranten vor allem über Twitter Informationen und organisierten neue Aktionen. Erdoğan reagierte mit teilweisen Blockaden von Twitter und Störsendern im Gezi-Park, die das mobile Internet lahmlegten.

Gesetz 5651 und seine Folgen

Heute twittern 17 Prozent aller Türken, etwa 50 Prozent sind in sozialen Netzwerken angemeldet. Die sozialen Netzwerke haben sich als alternative Medien etabliert. Mit ihrem Aufstieg begann auch die türkische Internetzensur, schreiben die türkischen Wissenschaftler Mustafa Akgül und Melih Kırlıdoğ in einer im Internet Policy Review veröffentlichten Studie.

Twitter startete im Jahr 2006. Zur gleichen Zeit beriet die türkische Regierung über das Gesetz 5651. Als Hauptgrund, den Zugang zum Netz beschränken zu wollen, gab man damals Kinderpornografie an. Ein Jahr später trat das Gesetz in Kraft. Heute ermöglicht es den türkischen Behörden eine weitgehende Zensur des Internets. Die Türkei spielt in dieser Hinsicht in einer Liga mit dem Iran und China. Im Press Freedom Index von Reporter ohne Grenzen liegt die Türkei mittlerweile hinter Staaten wie dem Irak und Afghanistan.

Zentraler Pfeiler der türkischen Zensur ist noch heute das Gesetz 5651. Es regelt, unter welchen Umständen die Presidency of Telecommunication and Communication (TIB), eine Abteilung der türkischen Kommunikationsbehörde, Websites blockieren kann. Die TIB kann sich dem Gesetz nach an die Provider halten, wenn es um “schädliche Seiten” geht. Zum Beispiel, wenn sie Glücksspiele oder Drogen anbieten, das Türkentum beleidigen oder jegliche Form von Pornografie, Prostitution oder Homosexualität zeigen. 84 Prozent aller Seiten werden Akgül und Kırlıdoğ zufolge wegen erotischer Darstellungen blockiert.

Source: http://www.zeit.de/digital/internet/2015-06/tuerkei-internet-zensur-wahlen

Dharavi’de kadına yönelik şiddete karşı akıllı telefon uygulaması nasıl iş görüyor?

Bhanuben Dharavi’deki erkeklerin kendisinden ve ekibinden korkup korkmadıkları sorulduğunca seslice gülüyor. “Henüz değil… ama bu günlerde bize karşı biraz temkinliler” diyor Bombay Merkezli STK SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action/ Beslenme, Eğitim ve Sağlık Kuruluşu) için çalışmakta olan 42 yaşındaki topluluk görevlisi.
Bombay’daki Dharavi gecekondu semti 300,000 ila 1 milyon arasında insanın evi. Bhanuben burada doğup büyümüş ve hem bölgeyi avcunun içi gibi biliyor hem de “bir milyon ruhun kaynaştığı bu gecekondu semtinde” hayatta kalma mücadelesinin zorluklarını.
“Burada toplumsal cinsiyete dayalı şiddet oranı çok yüksek, fakat ben şanslıyım,” diyor iki erkek çocuk annesi Bhanuben ve ekliyor: “Kocam iyi bir adamdır.”
Yerel Suçlar Kayıt Bürosunun (National Crime Records Bureau- NCRB) verileri, kadınlara yönelik suçların 43.6%’sının kocalar ve akrabalar tarafından işlendiğini gösteriyor.
Hindistan’da kadınlara yönelik şiddet oldukça yaygın ve çoğu – aile içi şiddet, çeyiz ölümleri, asit saldırıları, namus cinayetleri, tecaviz, kaçırma ve zulüm- aile üyeleri vasıtasıyla gerçekleşmekte. Yerel Suçlar Kayıt Bürosu (National Crime Records Bureau- NCRB) verileri Hindistanlı bir kadının en az güvende olduğu konumun aile içinde olduğunu gösteriyor: Kadınlara yönelik suçların 43.6%’sının kocalar ve akrabalar tarafından işlendiğini gösteriyor.
Çok etnik yapılı Dharavi’de ise bu problem kadınların çoğunun yoksul ve eğitimsiz olmasıyla daha da pekişiyor. Yaşamını sürdürmek zorunluluğunun acımasız baskısı, mekan darlığı ve hijyenik olmayan koşullar sağlıksız beslenmeye, yoksunluğa, hastalıklara ve sık sık savunması kadınlar ile çocukların istismar edilmesine neden oluyor.
SNEHA Dharavi’deki kadınlarla çalışmaya 2001 yılında başladı ve bugüne dek 300,000 kadına destek olup, 130 kadın grubunu şiddete kurban gitmekten kurtulmuşların eğitim ve desteği için harekete geçirdi.
“Gecekondudaki aile içi şiddet her yıl artarken, kadınları sessiz kalmaya zorlayan sosyal normlar ve destek yapısının olmayışı sayesinde bu olayların kayıt altına alınması hususunda bir boşluk olduğunu farkettik” diyor SHENA’nın kadın ve çocuklarakarşı şiddeti önleme programının yöneticisi Nayreen Daruwalla.
SHENA, şiddetin kayıt altına alınmasını/bildirilmesini yaygınlaştırmak için 2014’de Little Sister Project’i (Küçük Kız Kardeşim Projesi) başlattı. Birleşmiş milletler gelişim programı tarafından finanse edilen proje ile 160 yerli kadına, açık veri donanım (open data kit- ODK) formu ve EyeWatch adı verilen uygulamanın yüklü olduğu Android akıllı telefonları kullanarak toplumsal cinsiyet şuçlarını tespit etme ve bildirmeleri için eğitim verilmiştir.
“Daha önce böyle davaları resmi kayıt defterine yazardık… böyle olması çok külfetliydi. Fakat şimdi ODK ile bunu elektronik olarak yapabiliyoruz” diye açıklıyor Bhanuben. Söz konusu veriler daha sonra SNEHA yarafından kontrol edilen merkezi bir veritabanında depolanıyor. Verileri gönderen mücadelecilerin kimlikleri ise saklı tutuluyor.
Indianeye Security isimli bir firma tarafından geliştirilmiş EyeWatch uygulaması, yerel olarak sanginiler olarak bilinen topluluk görevlilerinin herhangi bir olaya tanık olduklarında ses ve görüntü kayıtları (klipler) almalarına olanak tanıyan cep telefonu temelli bir platform. Uygulama bir kez etkin konuma getirildikten ve tehlike alarmı çaldıktan sonra, yardım sağlayabilecek bir SNEHA çalışanına arama yönlenmekte.
“Bu teknoloji, şiddet olaylarının kitlelere duyurulmasında, tekrar eden şiddetin izinin sürülmesinde ve Dharavi’deki şiddetin yoğunluğunu daha iyi anlamamıza yardımcı oluyor” diye belirtiyor Daruwalla. “Şiddetin bildirilmesinin, şiddeti önlemenin ilk adımı olduğuna inanıyoruz.”
Bombay’daki Dharavi Asya’nın en büyük gecekondu semti ve 1 milyon kadar insana ev sahipliği yapıyor.
SHENA, bu uygulamanın şiddetin bildirilmesinde artışı desteklediği, topluluk üyelerinin hangi tür yardımların mümkün olduğunu bilmelerine ve STK’ların Dharavi’deki şiddetin yoğunluğunu daha iyi anlamalarına yardımcı olduğuna inanıyor. Etkileşim iki tülü gerçekleşiyor: kimi zaman sanginiler bir olay hakkında bilgi edinmek istiyor ve mücadeleciye doğru adım atıyor; kimi zaman ise mücadeleciler kendileri şiddet olaylarını bildirmek için sanginileri arıyor.
“Gönüllülerimiz, şiddete maruz kalan mücadelecilere tıbbi yardım ve polise başvurma konusunda tavsiyeler sunmak üzere eğitim alıyorlar.” Daruwalla, şiddet olaylarının bir kez SNEHA merkezine taşınmasından sonra danışmaların mücadelecilere polis raporlarını doldurmada yardımcı olduklarını ve yasal destek teklifinde bulunduklarını ifade ediyor.
SNEHA bu yılın başlarında çalışmalarını Dharavi bienali açılışında sergiledi. Sanginiler parça kumaşlar ve atık nesneler kullanarak gecekondudaki toplumsal cinsiyet şiddetini yenilikçi bir yolla görselleştiren Mapping the Hurt (Acıyı Haritalamak) adını verdikleri bir sanat projesi yarattılar.
Fakat zorluğun bir parçası şiddetin izini sürmek ve şiddeti bildirmek/kayıt altına almak ise, diğer büyük bir kısmı da polisi harekete geçirmek.
“Ne zaman bir aile içi şiddet olayını bildirmek için polise gitsek, oradaki polisler dosya doldurmak konusunda isteksiz davranıyorlar. Böyle şeylerin ev içinde halledilmesi gerektiğini söylüyorlar,” diyor Bhanuben.
Eğer olay belgelere geçse bile, cezai yaptırımların oranının düşük olması, böyle suçları belgelemenin faydasız olduğu kanaatini güçlendiriyor. Dahası, toplumsal cinsiyet meselelerinin anlaşılmaması, şiddet ve kadınların avukat ve yargıçlar arasındaki sabit konumu, kadınların ihtiyaç ve isteklerine tepeden bakan arabuluculuğu özendiren sonuçlara varılmasını desteklemiş oluyor.
Geçen yıl SNEHA tarafından toplanan Temmuz ile Aralık ayları arasındaki veriler 345 dosyanın incelendiğini fakat bunlardan yalnızca 19%’unun polise bildirildiğini gösteriyor.
STK’nın sosyal destek programı Bombay’daki 4,500 polise memuru ve polis memuru adayına eğitim vermiş ve 2,100’den fazla devlet hastanesi çalışanına, hastalar arasında şiddet vakalarını tespit etme konusunda yardım sağlanmıştır.
Bhanuben, bir destek grubu olarak sanginilerin kadınların birlikte oturup sohbet edebilecekleri arkadaşlar olduklarını dile getiriyor. “Bazen dışarı çıkıyoruz… biraz hava almak için. Bu yoldaşlık dışardan bakanlar için çok şey ifade etmeyebilir, fakat bu bizim için zorlu atmosferde hayatta kalmanın oksijenidir.”
Kaynak: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jun/02/phone-app-challenging-violence-against-women-mumbai-slum-dharavi
Çeviren: Bilgesu Savcı