Fatma Sena Kale

This blog post was produced as part of the course “Social Media, Ideologies, and Ethics in the United States” at the University of Turku.

In the past, but not more than a decade ago, people were using traditional media to receive news, to watch politicians on TV, and to follow what was going on around the world. Then, the development of social media changed nearly everything. Since the traditional media are not completely reliable anymore, social media became the number one way to find reliable sources. As traditional media are becoming close friends of the government and are not objective in their reporting, social media have broken taboos and provided a forum for organizing public events and activist movements.

One of the most important activist movements that achieved its goal through social media took place in Turkey. Sule Cet, a 23-year-old woman living in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, was murdered by her ex-boss and a friend of his in 2018. The two men come from powerful Turkish families that have a good relationship with the government. That is why traditional media – such as the newspapers Milliyet and Hurriyet – that were working under the government tried to depict Sule Cet as a liar. The newspapers claimed that this was not a murder but a suicide. Since Ms. Cet was young and single, it was seen as immoral for her to be with two men in the other one’s house. The newspapers blamed her and said that she was not a virgin, and that is why she deserved to die.

Yet, Sule Cet was not the only woman who was murdered by a man. She was one of 400 women in 2019 who were killed by men. This sparked a fire on social media platforms. Various organizations created events under the hashtag #SuleCetIcınAdalet (Justice for Sule Cet), and they pressured the Ministry of Justice and the Court. Since people were aware that the traditional media were not doing what they should and were acting against women, people supported the movement and raised their voices on Twitter. Moreover, many celebrities and well-known people shared their ideas under the hashtag and called on people to gather in front of the Court. One and half years later, the murderer Cagatay Aksu was sentenced to life in prison for the sexual assault and murder of Sule Cet, and his friend Berk Akand was sentenced to 18 years for assisting in the crimes.

The success of social media in this case means a lot for Turkish people, for women, and for me. Without Twitter, the activists could not have become popular. The reliability of traditional media has collapsed in Turkey and they have started to work for the government. It can be clearly seen that social media replaced traditional media, because we who defended Sule Cet’s rights and fought against injustice achieved our goal on Twitter, not in the newspapers. Furthermore, after the court decisions, many newspapers who wrote against Sule Cet apologized, which can be counted as the achievement of social media and public pressure. As a woman, I am proud of myself for being a part of this movement, because it is not only our triumph. It belongs to all women who were murdered by men. We know that Sule Cet will not be the last victim because the laws in Turkey do not work properly and traditional media do everything to justify the actions of the government. Yet, we know that we have social media and if we stick together as human beings, as women, we can do whatever we want, because we have the forum to raise our voices. The power of social media tore the traditional media apart, and we are so proud!

Source:

“Activists in Turkey hail convictions in femicide case.” BBC News, December 5, 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-50673700