The Emerging Threats to Democracy: Turkey’s Internet Censorship and the Upcoming Election

Turkey gears up for a high-stakes parliamentary and presidential election on May 14, 2022. However, two international human rights organizations, ARTICLE 19 and Human Rights Watch, have expressed concern over the government’s efforts to tighten control over the digital ecosystem in the lead-up to the election. These efforts could undermine the electoral process, leading to a less-than-democratic outcome and infringing on the right to freedom of expression and privacy.

Digital censorship tools are at the forefront of concern, with the government threatening or throttling social media platforms to prevent opposing views from circulating during the election. The government has a history of silencing dissenting opinions online, frequently blocks websites and orders the removal of content that voices opposing views, and has a record of blocking access to popular social media networks during political unrest or when it anticipates criticism. New amendments introduced in October 2022 have further expanded the government’s toolkit, threatening social media platforms that reject data requests or content removals with hefty fines and bandwidth restrictions.

The government’s repressive policy towards civil society, particularly journalists and political opponents, reveals its hostility towards dissenting opinions. Journalists face prosecutions for criticizing the government or sharing critical articles on social media, leading to a shrinking of the digital space by fostering self-censorship.

On the other hand, manipulative online behavior has been prevalent in political discourse in Turkey. Networks of fake accounts have circulated pro-government views on social media during past votes. Political parties participating in the election, namely the Republican People’s Party (CHP), expressed concerns over algorithmically faked audio or video clips aimed at discrediting candidates.

Social media platforms and messaging services also shoulder responsibility towards the right to participate in democratic elections. Under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, companies have a responsibility to respect human rights and remedy abuses that undermine the right to participate in democratic elections. However, popular communication platforms have failed to address the use of their platforms to manipulate outcomes in democratic elections in several countries, a move that necessitates heavier investments in resources needed to understand and address these issues.

ARTICLE 19 and Human Rights Watch have scrutinized these policies and found that only Meta and TikTok have outlined their approach to Turkey‘s elections. YouTube and Twitter have general policies on elections, and Telegram has no publicly available policy on disinformation or elections.

The groups have suggested that social media and messaging platforms prioritize human rights over profits by resisting government pressure and putting in place contingency plans against throttling. These plans would guarantee access to timely and accurate results from independent sources such as election monitors. Social media companies should establish contingency plans to ensure the public has access to their platforms throughout the election period and resist pressure to remove content that civil society shares, which is crucial for election monitoring.

In conclusion, Turkey‘s democratic election faces the looming threat of the government’s digital repression of dissenting opinions. Social media and messaging platforms have a responsibility to uphold the right to participate in free, democratic elections by prioritizing human rights over their profits, investing in resources to understand and address issues, and establishing contingency plans to ensure that the public has access to their platforms throughout the election period.

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