[Air-L] It’s Not Twitter It’s The Eclipse Of Reason

F. Mutlu Binark binark at baskent.edu.tr
Fri Mar 21 16:14:59 PDT 2014


It’s Not Twitter It’s The Eclipse Of Reason


Twitter has become a basic communication tool for the users in Turkey to
exercise freedom of speech. The President, The Prime Minister and the
commissioners, journalists, bureaucrats, members of the parliament,
writers, artists, unionists and activists, people with different political
ideologies, oppressed groups and people from different parts of the
society can state their opinions and participate in discussions about the
current situations. In an environment where traditional media is
constantly struggling with government oppression, communication tools like
Twitter are crucial for the citizens. The only environment we can access
to information without being censored is through the internet. To block an
essential tool like Twitter just before the elections is unacceptable.
It’s a clear violation of the right to freedom of expression.


Violation of the Right To Elect and the Right To Be Elected.

Turkey is on the eve of Local Elections. The running parties and the
candidates use social media and Twitter frequently for their campaigns.
This type of communication gives citizens the opportunity to follow the
candidates closely, express their problems and hear the solutions that
candidates can offer and also force them to create solutions. Therefore,
blocking Twitter not only violates the freedom of speech but also violates
the right to elect and to be elected.

 We Are Concerned About The Integrity Of Upcoming Local Elections

We are experiencing great political tensions in expectation of the
upcoming local elections that will take place on March 30th, 2014. These
tensions are further solidified through distrust in the electoral process
itself. The internet holds great potential for bringing citizen oversight
to this process. It offers platforms and communication mechanisms to
rapidly report on injustices and fraud attempts during the election data.
Given current circumstances in Turkey, the internet is expected to play a
crucial role in the supervision of the casting and counting of votes and
hence in assuring the integrity and safety of the elections. The current
blocking of internet based services is destructive to these citizen
initiatives, increases existing social and political tensions, and
negatively affects the trust in the electoral process. We are hence very
concerned about both the integrity and safety of the upcoming elections.

Law Has Been Reduced To A Tool In The Hands Of The Government


The government points to court rulings to justify the blocking of Twitter.
However, by now we are unsure about "whose" courts and rulings we can rely
on. In the hands of the government, "legal grounds" are interpreted
excessively or simply manipulated, leading to increasing distrust in the
legal system. The Presidency of Telecommunications (Telekomunikasyon
Iletisim Baskanligi or simply TIB) plays a precarious role in the
enforcement of these legal rulings. In some past cases, they have
abstained from taking action on select court rulings, arguing that it is
beyond their legal authority. They have stated that TIB only has the
authority to enforce blocking decisions when these are based on catalogued
crimes. Yet in some cases, they have overstepped their authority and
enforced rulings on blocking Internet based services. The arbitrary
enforcement of legal rulings is in tune with the repeated threats made
public by Prime Minister Erdoğan who most recently announced "we will
eradicate social networks like Twitter".


An “eclipse of reason” is the current state of the Turkish government. It
is not possible to articulate a rational explanation for the new
regulations, including the new Internet laws, and their enforcement within
a framework of governance informed by basic democratic values. We can only
regard these intrusive interventions as acts of despair and a lack of
intellect.


These shameful acts of censorship are unacceptable. We call for action
against censorship and the chilling of voices on the Internet, now!



Alternative Informatics Association,        March 21st, 2014

www.alternatifbilisim.org





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