Digital Hailing: Social Media and Police Work (original) (raw)

The Sticky-Stalker State Subject: Surveillance of Dissent in Turkey

Criminalisation of Dissent in Times of Crisis , 2024

Despite the emergence of high-tech surveillance tools, conventional forms of undercover surveillance have not become obsolete. In this chapter, drawing on an ethnographic case study from Turkey and addressing the ever-increasing deployment of undercover police surveillance and informant activities in policing dissent, I ask: Why in an era of unprecedented development in digital surveillance technologies, undercover police activities are still employed? Building upon the existing body of literature that illuminates the role of undercover policing in controlling and manipulating dissidents, I argue that another crucial aspect of undercover policing is its capacity to transform the state—a sociological abstraction—into a tangible, material entity, albeit one that is deeply unsettling and menacing, within the daily lives of targeted populations. Through insidious undercover policing practices, the state emerges as an adhesive, predatory presence that sticks to the body and infiltrates the mind, depriving its targets of a feeling of freedom.

Counter-surveillance and alternative new media in Turkey

Information, Communication & Society, 2018

This study, drawing on alternative media and networked social movements, explores the counter-surveillance practices and oppositional imaginaries of activist citizen journalists (ACJs) in Turkey to combat the surveillance strategies of the authoritarian Turkish government. After the failed coup attempt in July 2016, the ruling party has become more suspicious of dissent of any kind. However, the ACJs who use mobile communication and social media as channels for journalism and counter-surveillance continue their critical journalistic work in this context. Using ethnographic data collected from interviews with these media activists, this study focuses on oppositional imaginaries regarding the surveillance culture as well as counter-surveillance tactics, both offensive and defensive. To do so, we conducted 22 in-depth interviews with the representatives of alternative new media (ANM) initiatives and ACJs who were gathering, producing and disseminating news at the time of the study (between January and July 2017). Backed by the available literature on interdisciplinary approaches, data were gathered from the interviews, thematically coded and critically analysed. The whole process of news-making that criticises the authoritarian surveillance state stands out as an offensive tactic. On the other hand, defensive tactics are very closely related to the safety of journalists, their sources and data. The paper argues that the variety of offensive and defensive tactics should be increased and they should be substantially improved. The study also sheds light on the need for more detailed and extensive interdisciplinary research.

Communication, Culture & Critique I Have the Government in My Pocket … : Social Media Users in Turkey, Transmit-Trap Dynamics, and Struggles Over Internet Freedom

This article explores how social media users in Turkey conceptualize and navigate free speech challenges in the wake of recent government crackdowns on media institutions. The study is based on qualitative interviews with 40 social media users in Istanbul, including people from LGBTQ, feminist, Kurdish, journalist, activist, and academic communities , who have been on the front lines of free speech struggles in Turkey. Informants' comments converged around a theme of transmit-trap dynamics, which emphasizes user experiences in the context of " networked authoritarianism, " and speaks to the ways Turk-ish social media users find themselves simultaneously empowered by and targeted within social media platforms.

Online Surveillance in Turkey Legislation Technology and Citizen Involvement

Efe Kerem Sözeri Vrije Unversiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. eksozeri@hotmail.com The AKP government has constructed an online surveillance regime (not to mention censorship) via various legal and technical means. This article analyzes the emergence and expansion of online surveillance within the context of the AKP's authoritarian practices that are interwoven with its nationalist and populist politics. It begins with an overview of legal and technical initiatives aimed at enhancing online surveillance, data collection and retention. It then focuses on the AKP's recent strategies designed to bolster this online surveillance regime such as the institutionalization of online " snitching " via a newly-introduced social media app that enables citizen-informants to " report terrorists " to the authorities. The article argues that the AKP's recent strategies and rationalities to regulate the conduct of online users are aligned with principles of " go...

Maroto Calatayud, Manuel & Segura Vázquez, Alejandro (2018) Mobilisation and surveillance on social media. The ambivalent case of the anti-austerity protests in Spain (2011-2014), in Lucas Melgaço & Jeffrey Monaghan (eds.), Protests in the Information Age, Routledge

In this chapter we analyse the use of social media during this period from the perspective of the relationship between social media’s role in, on the one hand, the mobilisation of protest and, on the other, the surveillance of activism. In this respect, it is important to highlight the methodological limitations attached to the lack of transparency and difficulty accessing official data on surveillance practices in Spain. Surveillance practices by Spanish police and intelligence agencies are very scarcely documented both in official statistics and reports and scientific literature. The data remain in most cases beyond the scope of the legislation on transparency and access to public information. The Spanish law on transparency provides indeed for exceptions on the right to access in those cases where public security and ongoing criminal investigations are involved. The more than questionable legality of surveillance of social movements for political reasons adds additional obscurity to this kind of practice. The information analysed here covers the period of strong mobilisation of the 15M movement, and is aimed at illustrating the theoretical hypothesis on the ambivalence of social media for the purposes of mobilisation. The study gives special weight to indirect sources, in particular information and news reports appearing in the media usually as a result of scandals regarding police and intelligence services. We will also present information from anonymous leaks to the media, in some cases quite illustrative of surveillance dynamics. We will also briefly describe some aspects of the legal regime of police and intelligence surveillance, to contextualise the normative and institutional background of these practices, as well as refer to scholarly sources on social movements and data reported from social network platforms.

Digital Traces of “Twitter Revolutions”: Resistance, Polarization, and Surveillance via Contested Images and Texts of Occupy Gezi

2020

Protest movements have been galvanized recently by social media and are commonly, and somewhat hyperbolically, referred to by mainstream media as “Twitter revolutions.” This article identifies social media as a battleground for disseminating contending versions of reality, not only during Twitter revolutions, but also in their aftermath. Articulating the enduring impact of popular social movements and examining how protestors and governmental supporters contest their meaning over time, the article studies the digital traces of the Gezi Park protests in Turkey (2013) after the mobilization dissipated. The digital traces of protests act as critical digital artifacts of contestation with actors on both sides (pro- and anti-AKP [Justice and Development Party] government in Turkey). These digital traces are reanimated by both actors to build support, assert truth claims, foster identity/community, and/or demand recognition. The article deploys content and multimodal analyses of texts and images on Twitter, shared through hashtags on the protests when the protests’ alleged leaders faced trials (2018‒2019).

Turkey’s Internet Policy After the Coup Attempt: The Emergence of a Distributed Network of Online Suppression and Surveillance

2017

In July 2016, Turkey was shaken by a bloody coup attempt. Although the would-be putschists failed, their insurgency led to an unprecedented reshuffling of Turkey’s political economic and socio-cultural landscapes. Notwithstanding the critical reverberations on the army, judiciary, law enforcement and civil society, the abortive coup set in motion a massive purge of civil servants, closure of media outlets, arrests of journalists, and blocking of websites and social media accounts. This report offers an examination of the evolution of internet policy in Turkey from the early 2000s to the post-coup conjuncture. It begins with an overview of internet legislation in Turkey during the 2000s under the AKP government ( Justice and Development Party), and proceeds to discuss the deployment of different forms of control between 2013-2016 to contain the fallout from political and security crises and the potentially disruptive affordances of social media platforms. The report then focuses on t...

Surveil, Datafy, Publicize: digital authoritarianism and migration governance in Turkey

Democratization

Scholarly interest in digital authoritarianism has primarily focused on consolidated authoritarian regimes, where digital tools and data are employed for surveillance, repression, propaganda, and manipulation of citizens. This study redefines the scope of digital authoritarianism by examining its role in migration governance and its application beyond fully authoritarian states. It introduces a theoretical framework that examines digital authoritarianism through three key mechanisms: digital surveillance, datafication, and the selective publicization of migration data. Using Turkey as a case study, the empirical analysis highlights the distinct impacts of digital authoritarianism on citizens and non-citizens (i.e. refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants). While non-citizens are targeted by the punitive use of surveillance and datafication, the selective dissemination of migration data serves to manipulate public opinion in a failed policy area. The study then examines the European Union's role in enhancing Turkey’s digital authoritarian capacities. It demonstrates that digital authoritarianism is becoming increasingly transnational, with democracies actively driving and financing its implementation in semi-authoritarian contexts, often circumventing democratic oversight. This study advances the theorization of digital authoritarianism by unpacking its nuanced and cross-border dynamics.

The Double-Edged Effects of Social Media Terror Communication: Interconnection and Independence vs. Surveillance and Human Rights Calamities

2014

This paper connects the effects of social media on terror/anti-terror communication with dynamics and consequences of surveillance. Citizens become via social media more independent from mass media and more interconnected. This is also valid when citizens engage in terror/anti-terror communication. However, via social media citizens also become targets of the 'collect-it-all' surveillance, which was revealed to the global public in 2013. I argue that due to such surveillance some citizens might start to censor themselves and that surveillance inflicts with a number of human rights. I further argue that social media contribute to extending surveillance: by being a temptation for intelligence services, by not resisting state authorities and via constructing threat perceptions among populations which in effect deliver security politicians 'windows of opportunity' in order to implement ever more surveillance.