{"id":57349,"date":"2026-07-23T17:09:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T14:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/?p=57349"},"modified":"2026-07-23T17:10:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T14:10:30","slug":"psifiakos-aftarchismos-stin-tourkia-i-yponomefsi-tis-eleftherias-tou-typou-kai-i-ergaleiopoiisi-tis-technologias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/digital-authoritarianism-in-turkey-the-erosion-of-press-freedom-and-the-weaponization-of-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Authoritarianism in Turkey: The Erosion of Press Freedom and the Weaponization of Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"the-content\"><p><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">The following paper was awarded first prize in the policy paper competition organized by ELIAMEP&#8217;s Turkey Programme, focusing on Turkey&#8217;s domestic developments, foreign relations, and socio-political dynamics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The policy paper examines the systematic erosion of press freedom and digital rights in Turkey, focusing particularly on events following the arrest of Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu on March 19, 2025. The Sara\u00e7hane protests that erupted in response revealed the full dimensions of the Turkish government&#8217;s digital censorship apparatus: bandwidth throttling, mass social media account suspensions, and the systematic suppression of citizen journalism. Through an analysis of recent policy developments, legal frameworks, and the relationship between the Erdo\u011fan regime and Big Tech companies, this report documents how authoritarian governments leverage digital platforms to silence dissent.<\/p>\n<p>The analysis shows that with 90% of traditional media under state control, journalists have migrated to YouTube and social media platforms only to face expensive licensing requirements, threats of arrest, and platform-level censorship. The report argues that \u0130mamo\u011flu&#8217;s case represents a dangerous precedent: his social media accounts remain suspended, despite his legal case maintaining the presumption of innocence, which effectively prevents him from campaigning as a presidential candidate. This systematic destruction of information infrastructure has implications not only for Turkey, but for democratic movements worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>Read <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Policy-Paper-211-Daryurek-EN-final.pdf\">here<\/a> in pdf the Policy paper by <span data-teams=\"true\"><strong>Ezgi Daryurek<\/strong>, Master\u2019s Program in Media and Migration Flows, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following paper was awarded first prize in the policy paper competition organized by ELIAMEP&#8217;s Turkey Programme, focusing on Turkey&#8217;s domestic developments, foreign relations, and socio-political dynamics. The policy paper examines the systematic erosion of press freedom and digital rights in Turkey, focusing particularly on events following the arrest of Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":57351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[476],"tags":[],"program":[24],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57349"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57378,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57349\/revisions\/57378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57349"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=57349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}