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Abstract
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 "governing at a distance" and are informed by both its authoritarianism (exemplified by the repression of all forms of dissent in the broader media ecosystem) and its right-wing nationalism and populism (as seen in the stigmatizing of critical voices and/or certain groups as sources of threat, labeling them as "being against the nation" and as "terrorists").
Introduction
Since the late 2000s, media and communications in Turkey have been severely restricted. The AKP government (Justice and Development Party) has exerted legal and financial pressure on news media to muzzle critical reporting and tightened the control of the online public sphere as per its nationalist and religious conservative logic (Yesil 2016; Ohm 2015; Akser and Baybars-Hawk 2012; Kurban and Sozeri 2012). At every critical political juncture since 2013, the AKP has amped up its efforts to silence critical journalists, activists, and other politically-engaged actors.1 In the online sphere, these initiatives have included domain blocking (denying access to an entire IP address), URL blocking (denying access to only certain materials in a given domain), regional internet shutdowns, surveillance and trolling (Telli Aydemir 2016; Saka 2014, 2016; Binark et al. 2015; Freedom House 2016; Yesil et al. 2017).
This article focuses on the construction and expansion of online surveillance, specifically in the post-2013 period. It begins with a brief overview of the AKP's populist and authoritarian politics, and contextualizes online surveillance as part of a toolkit that seeks to bolster the government's authority in the communicative space. It analyzes administrative, legal, and technical...