From the Construction of Hegemony to State Crisis: Political Power and Social Media in Turkey

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power promising democratization and economic prosperity. It successfully gained support from different fractions of capital, including religious groups. After a relatively democratic period, the party started a hegemonic project based on an authoritarian populism and conservative identity. As the government control over traditional media increased, social media became a tool for political debates. When the government passed a law restricting internet access to a degree we might call "the moralization of the digital public sphere", tens of thousands of young protesters marched through the streets of Istanbul. The same crowd showed up at the Gezi Protests again pushing the government into taking more radical measures. This study aims to analyze different stages of the government’s intervention with social media, based around the concept of hegemony. In this regard, we examined the cases which the government criminalizes and punishes opponents through the opinions expressed.