L'Universit

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L'Université Paul Cézanne, Aix-Marseille III
L'Institut Supérieur de l'Information et des
Médias08-09 Décembre 2011 à Aix-en-ProvenceSel
va ErsozMaltepe University,Istanbul,Turkey
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Being Online in Turkey Inclusion and Exclusion
Between Boundaries
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Outline

• Internet in Turkey The rise
• Online regulations in Turkey The restrictions
• Democratic Potential of Internet
• Internet dilemma The case of Turkey

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Internet in Turkey The rise

• Turkey has had public Internet access since 1993.
  
• The first available connections were dial-up.
• Cable Internet has been available since 1998 and
  ADSL since 2003.
• 35,000,000 Internet users as of March/2011.
• Internet use is highest with 55 , in the group
  aged between 16 to 24 years and decreased with
  the age

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Internet in Turkey The rise

• Technophobia of older generation
• Using the new technology is as natural as
  breathing for children whereas older
  generations fear and incapacity block their
  relations with internet
• (Tapscott,1998)

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• All the things Web 2.0 represents -
  participation, collectivism, virtual communities,
  amateurism - become unarguably good things,
  things to be nurtured and applauded, emblems of
  progress toward a more enlightened state. But is
  it really so? "(2005).

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Internet in Turkey The rise

• Young males are typically the earliest adopters
  in emerging internet markets and digital
  platforms.
• The strong presence of these early adopters in
  Turkey 71 of users are aged 15-34 and 58 are
  male
• Turkey shares many characteristics with the most
  developed internet markets like strong presence
  of search and key categories, dominance of
  Western super sites (Google, Facebook)

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Internet in Turkey The rise

• Google ranks as number one property in Turkey
  with 18.3 million unique visitors.
• 40 of top properties are US sites.
• Facebook's position as the third ranked Web
  property overall in Turkey in September 2010
• Dogan Online led a total of seven Turkish-based
  properties that ranked amongst the top 15,
• Including Milliyet Group, Mynet A.S. and
  Blogcu.com.
• Internet users spend on average more than one
  hour a day online, ranking it among the five most
  engaged online populations worldwide.

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Internet in Turkey The rise

• Online video viewing has become an essential part
  of the digital consumer experience in Turkey with
  9 out of 10 internet users consuming video
  content every month
• During February 2011, viewers watched nearly 792
  million videos on Facebook
• YouTube videos, with 690 million videos
• Dailymotion.com ranked third with nearly 14.9
  million unique viewers
• The largest Turkish platform Nokta Medya with
  43.6 million online videos

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Online regulations in Turkey The restrictions

• The law on the internet (or the Regulation of
  Broadcasts via Internet and Prevention of Crimes
  Committed Through such Broadcasts) No. 5651 was
  passed by the parliament on May 4, 2007.
• Within this law, the censorship on internet has
  been designated, always referring to existing
  related laws.

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Online regulations in Turkey The restrictions

• Within this law, the censorship on internet has
  been designated, always referring to existing
  related laws. According to the Law
• -provocation for suicide
• -sexual abuse of the children
• -facilitation of the use of narcotics
• -provision of substances harmful to the health
• -obscenity
• -prostitution
• -facilitation of gambling
• -crimes against Ataturk

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Online regulations in Turkey The restrictions

• Turkish court does not only based their decisions
  about web sites blockings according to the law
  5651 (articles enlisted above) but some
  additional law rules have been running
• The internet law 5651 hold IPs liable for
  blocking access to illegal Web content.
• The Telecommunications Authority is in charge
  with classifying the actor accountable for the
  offensive content.

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Online regulations in Turkey The restrictions

• The main reason for blocking web sites ONI report
  2010 is obscenity
• Scandalous ban of YouTube in 2007
• The consequential effects of this blockage have
  some side effects on Turkey.
• For example in its report on Enemies of the
  Internet, issued last March, Reporters without
  Borders added Turkey to the list of countries
  under surveillance.

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Online regulations in Turkey The restrictions

• There have been around 15000 sites which are
  inaccessible either as the result of a court
  decision or at the initiative of the TIB by
  October 2011.
• Turkey has been criticized both by international
  organizations like Reporters without Borders or
  Turkish Press itself or lawyers and academicians.
• Turkey has been executing a selective filtering
  on the political content. (ONI Report)

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Online regulations in Turkey The restrictions

• The tension got higher when TIB has explained the
  Use of the Internet Safety Rules
• Filter criteria are determined entirely by the
  TIB. Not only access to harmful content,
  determined by TIB but also most of the social
  media sites like Blogger.com or Youtube will be
  restricted by this new legislation.
• TIB defended itself by saying that
• I will not comment on the reason for introducing
  the subject now in May but not in February when
  the decision is taken. I think the reason for
  introducing it, is political, I can not make
  another explanation"

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Democratic Potential of Internet

• At the beginning, the potential power of web 2.0
  tools were not merely understood by governments
  and more over there were not censorship
  applications towards these new technologies.

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Democratic Potential of Internet

• Optimistic discourse vs. pessimistist discourse
• Political disengagement (Althaus and Tewksbury,
  1999)
• Political news has been given as if they have the
  same importance with other new, because of that
  the followers of political agenda on the internet
  are less informed than those who follow it from
  the other media.

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Democratic Potential of Internet

• 'Dictator's dilemma
• used by Christopher Kedzie and described the
  Internet as a boon to democracy
• Dictators dilemma occurs when commercial and
  financial pressures arising from globalization
  force dictators into relinquishing their monopoly
  over digital communications

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Democratic Potential of Internet

• It is a dilemma for the dictator because losing
  control of media can translate into weakened
  political influence, and increased political
  autonomy for citizens. It is a dilemma for the
  dictator because losing control of the media can
  translate into political influence weakened and
  with increased political autonomy for citizens.
  (1997)

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Democratic Potential of Internet

• Hillary Clinton we who believe that governments
  have erected barriers to internet freedom -
  whether they're technical or filters or
  censorship regimes their attacks on those who
  exercise rights to expression and assembly online
  - will find themselves eventually boxed in

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Democratic Potential of Internet

• Morozov What happened afterwards in Iran got
  lost in the media coverage, with all the media
  still focused on how the Green Movement was using
  the Internet, but not focused enough on how the
  government itself was using the Internet (2011).

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Internet dilemma the case of Turkey

• Foreign press and international media
  organizations, which have published negative
  reports about internet freedom in Turkey, have
  eluded an issue in this whole process which is
  really important.

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Internet dilemma the case of Turkey

• The internet itself has played a leading role in
  internet censorship. NGOs, academics, bloggers
  and thousands against the internet filtering have
  chosen to announce their voices only on the
  internet.
• It would be convenient to name these events as
  internet dilemma.
• The circumstance which was planning to bring some
  limits on the internet, thanks to the internet,
  has taken a step back.

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Internet dilemma the case of Turkey

• The news of the event has been spread via
  internet, the topic is a discussion subject on
  the forums and finally the protest event has been
  carried to the streets where we have the
  mobilization axe.

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But

• The results of those actions have not yet been
  ascertained, and by using some of the critical
  scenarios, democratic potential of Turkish
  internet can be discussed.
• Street protest, in opposition to what media has
  reflected, has not reached to a very high
  audience

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Very little participation in street actions
outside of Istanbul

• while there is little question of the internets
  ability to quickly disseminate information, there
  is a great deal of uncertainty about the value of
  this information. That is, much of the material
  available on the internet is often unreliable and
  clearly unverifiable

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Signing the petition via the official site of the
action www.internetimedokunma.com is sufficient

• The next generation of activists in places like
  Belarus will believe that they are actually
  changing something by signing petitions on
  Facebook and by organizing all kinds of virtual
  protests, without actually changing anything in
  the real world. The government is happy to have
  them isolated in this digital sandbox without
  ever going out into the streets and protesting in
  the real world

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Not having too many participants during internet
street actions

• In this case, May 15th 'Do Not Touch My Internet'
  action was reached to those who has already ready
  to make the action and also to those who use the
  internet extensively and therefore was not
  publicly generalized.

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Concluding Remarks

• Would the riots that took place in North Africa
  and the Middle East, in other terms the so-called
  Arab Spring be effective without the use of
  social media or more specifically Tweeter or
  Facebook?

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Concluding Remarks

• In the case of Turkey If social media did not
  exist, there would not be any need for internet
  filtering and hence there would be no need for
  such actions.

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Conclusion

• As a result, in the light of all these events, we
  have witnessed a growing discourse in the world
  of social media to tell us how much it causes
  inclusion, whereas looking at the example of
  Turkey, we have seen the token inclusion that
  turned out to be an exclusion.
• Banned social media sites in Turkey, like YouTube
  and Blogger, in fact turns the inclusion into
  exclusion.

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Conclusion

• How effective the relationship between democracy
  and internet where everybody is taking about the
  democratic potential of the internet is no doubt
  depends on the context and on the country and on
  the perception of democracy in that country.
• Anectode from Turkey

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• Merci de votre attention
• Selva Ersoz