Digital Censorship on Social Media Platforms

Digital Rights Explored: Local Fights, Global Perspectives

In this episode we talk about digital censorship of independent and critical voices on major social media platforms. This is a contradictory circumstance since it is exactly these platforms that serve, in particular in countries with oppressive regimes, as the channels for dissenting voices to be heard and seen. The platforms often state that the content removal is due to a “technical bug,” but many independent journalists and activists believe they are being silenced by political reasons.

In this episode we travel to Turkey, where we speak to Gürkan Özturan, executive manager at the news agency Dokuz8News and an expert on media and censorship in Turkey. Gurkan introduces us to Nesibe Kırış, a lawyer and women’s rights activist. Through Gurkan’s and Nesibe’s stories we learn about their first-hand experience with publishing work on social media followed by their accounts being suspended and/or content removed.

In the second part we talk to Ellery Roberts Biddle - a projects Director at Ranking Digital Rights - who tells us about how platforms are scoring across the human rights spectrum, in terms of freedom of expression and right to privacy. Also, how are social media companies responding to the pressure by authoritarian regimes? And why are they accepting some of these laws imposed on them? Ellery shares with listeners her views on what can be done, and practical tips on how we can act when our content is removed.

Our expert speakers featured in this episode are:
Gürkan Özturan - Executive director at Dokuz8News
Nesibe Kırış - Lawyer and women’s rights activist who writes for ApostoNews & Metapolitik
Ellery Roberts Biddle - Projects director at Ranking Digital Rights and former Advocacy director at Global Voices
Additional reading sources:
Impact of Social Media Law on Media Freedom in Turkey Monitoring Report - extended research - October 2020/October 2021
This episode was created by:
Host and editor: Alexandre Amaral
Producer: Ena Omerović
Co-producer: Gürkan Özturan
Consultant (partner Deutsche Welle Akademie): Hanna Hempel

This is a Podcast made by the Media and Information Literacy Expert Network (MILEN) with the support of Deutsche Welle Akademie (DW Akademie).

Contact us with questions, comments or your Stories on digital rights' violations at:
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