ALL OF A SUDDEN: Research on Digital Violence against LGBTQIA+ communities in Türkiye

In recent decade, Türkiye has gone through drastic social and political changes especially after the attempted coup in 2016. After that the government started to implement more strict security measures to rule the country in a more authoritarian way by preventing and intervening the actions and discourses of any kind of oppositional voice. This situation directly and negatively affects human rights movement, LGBTQIA+ movement and feminist movement in particular. The fact that the absence of protective legislation on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expressions, and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC)-based discrimination, and prevention of gender-based violence, along with impunity culture in gender-related violations and cases accelerate worsening of the situation for communities and shrinking of democratic spaces for civil society.

In line with the global anti-gender rhetoric manipulated by the right-wing populist and authoritarian leaders, Turkish government’s high-level politicians – including the President - and representatives started to use hate speech over LGBTQIA+s and feminists by openly insulting, swearing[1] and verbally attacking the communities. Due to the lack of legal protection over hate speech, these crimes have never been punished by the law enforcements; and sadly, such impunity encourages potential perpetrators in daily life.

While this is the socio-political context relevant to LGBTQIA+s in Türkiye, it is not surprising to witness increasing hate speech and  gender-based violence on online platforms. KAOS GL, a prominent LGBTQIA+ news portal with extensive work on monitoring discriminative language and hate speech against LGBTQIA+ communities in Turkiye, has found that the intensity of hate speech and digital violence targeted at LGBTQIA+ community is very high on online platforms. Through a periodic social media monitoring, it found that Twitter accounts of most of this hate speech at 56.7%, Instagram at 52.4%, whereas respondents also reported high level of hateful attacks on Facebook, dating apps, online games and WhatsApp.. Although it is important to carry out a fact-finding about the range and type of digital violence practices, there is a further need to understand the dynamics behind online gender-based violence, and monitor the effects on LGBTQIA+ community in online platforms. In this regard, Kaos GL created and designed this research to answer the following questions:

• what forms of discrimination and exclusion do LGBTQIA+ people encounter because of social, economic and political changes driven by the internet?

• how does this digital violence (cyberbullying, disclosure of identity, hate speech, threats, etc.) affect the LGBTQIA+ community?

• and what are the ways in which they are addressed or challenged by infrastructure we build, and the movements, spaces and networks that we occupy?

We are aware that the main reasons for the inequality, discrimination and oppression that LGBTQIA+ people face are patriarchy, heteronormativity and the binary gender system. Besides, there are also cultural differences that impact the subjects in different ways as well as the influence of religion in countries like Türkiye. In this regard, those power structures and thoughts or belief systems were problematised and questioned from a feminist critical perspective by using the following research methods to better analyse the dynamics behind the problematic social attitudes towards LGBTQIA+ communities.

We are aware that the main reasons for the inequality, discrimination and oppression that LGBTQIA+ people face are patriarchy, heteronormativity and the binary gender system.

Theoretical Framework and Methodology

Intersectional feminism has been used as a standpoint from the lens of LGBTQIA+ people in Türkiye to criticise the existing power relations in the research process. The reasons why we chose intersectionality are that (i) intersectionality allows us to account for the differences and unique experiences between individuals; (ii) as a result of the diverse applicability of intersectionality, it has been embraced by various strands of feminist theory, providing a means of cooperation between scholars who have differing theoretical stances.[2]

Due to the fact that this topic is multi-dimensional, we needed to do a  a mixed-method research that includes qualitative (semi-structured in-depth interviews and focus group meetings with the stakeholders) and quantitative online survey, and intensive desktop research and  literature review. Furthermore, we enhanced the research quality by conducting focus groups with organisations working in the field of digital violence, and also LGBTQIA+ organisations and activists exposed to online GBV. . 

According to our literature review, there are a few academic studies, including feminist studies, that look at online GBV in Turkish critically. Even in these very few studies, digital violence has been analysed from a binary gender perspective and only focus on women and girls, without diverse sexual orientation and gender identity intersections. There was also a gap in reflecting LGBTQIA+ experiences in researches and academic studies; and widespread hate campaigns, attacks on activists via bot and troll accounts, and the role of politics in triggering digital violence (as a specific example of Turkiye) are underestimated. Besides, these studies do not include the comprehensive security measures and guides to protect the safety of the LGBTQIA+ users.

Many of our participants were keen on revealing their identities but due to the adverse/high risk they faced, we chose to keep their identities anonymous.

While the survey analysis was in progress, we also conducted in-depth interviews with 10 LGBTQIA+ persons. These were chosen from the activists in Kaos GL’s network and who we knew have experienced digital violence previously. During the interview process, we ensured the following ethical standards: informed consent, voluntary participation, confidentiality, physical safety, no harm from research participation, provision of crisis intervention, and mechanisms to attend to researcher needs, including vicarious trauma. Many of our participants were keen on revealing their identities but due to the adverse/high risk they faced, we chose to keep their identities anonymous.

Research Results

In the scope of the research, we are able to have an insight about the followings: (i) digital violence experience of LGBTQIA+ community, (ii) types and range of digital violence practices, and (iii) strategies to cope with digital violence.

Digital violence experiences of LGBTQIA+ community

The open-ended questions in the survey and the in-depth interviews of the study reveal the levels of being subjected to digital violence; frequency of LGBTQIA+ people experiencing digital violence; impact of the violence on their mental health or self-esteem; and who the perpetrators of digital violence are.

Based on our research, the results indicate that 9 out of every 10 LGBTQIA+ individuals are victims of digital violence.

61.5% of the participants stated that they had been subject to digital violence more than once. While 23.3% selected “often” as a response to “What is the frequency of the digital violence to which you were subjected?” Those who indicated they are always subject to digital violence comprised 6.1%. These findings reveal that digital violence on the internet has become a systematic phenomenon and often targets a person more than once.

In addition, the research also shows that the effects of violence on social media have a devastating impact on self-expression. These findings indicate that, most of the LGBTQIA+ individuals who have been the target of digital violence say there was long-term damage or harm to their mental health. A vast majority of LGBTQIA+ people (82.6%) feel angry after witnessing hate speech on the internet; 69.2% said they feel threatened while 58.5% said they felt unhappy when targeted. These emotions that arise when faced with hate speech are also followed by the feelings of loneliness and loss of self-worth. Some 38.5% of the participants stated that they remembered the negative incidents after experiencing hate speech.

When it comes to the perpetrators, 78.3% of the participants answered that the perpetrators are “People unknown to me.”  from this result, it is safe to argue that the perpetrators of violence against LGBTQIA+ persons on the internet are mostly unidentified. In cases where the identity is known to the survivor, a significant portion of the perpetrators consists of people from social circles such as friends, family and partners, as well as politicians, journalists and academics. Besides, among the perpetrators, journalists are accused of actively spreading hate speech, and they constitute a group that needs to be specifically examined. The media in Türkiye is one of the key areas that leads the production and dissemination of hate speech against LGBTQIA+ communities.

A vast majority of LGBTQIA+ people (82.6%) feel angry after witnessing hate speech on the internet; 69.2% said they feel threatened while 58.5% said they felt unhappy when targeted. These emotions that arise when faced with hate speech are also followed by the feelings of loneliness and loss of self-worth.

Types and range of digital violence practices

While responding to the question about the types of digital violence, the LGBTQIA+ individuals who participated in our survey indicate that there is an extensive amount of violence that is being invisibilised and overlooked. 87.2% participants in the survey reported experiences of insults and swearing, 47.4% were threatened, 44.5% received written, audio or video harassment messages, and 36.5% stated they were stalked.

The research findings also showed that the violence against LGBTQIA+ individuals on the internet begins with insults and swearing; it then escalates to threats, blackmail, harassment, persistent stalking, using names assigned at birth, opening of fake accounts in their names, having their email or social media accounts hacked, disclosure of information about their gender identity on social media without consent, disclosure of their photos and videos on social media posts without consent, disclosure of their dating app photos on other media platforms without consent, and restriction of internet access by their family, partner or school, and hate campaigns. The following quote, which belongs to an LGBTQIA+ activist who was subjected to an online hate campaign by phobic groups, shows how serious and frightening the level of escalation of digital violence towards LGBTQIA+ communities:

“All of a sudden, I found myself encountering a journalist whose existence was totally unknown to me until that moment, and the audience she mobilised. It was upon the advocacy and training activities I conducted, and the materials I produced, that this targeting started. It is a state of bafflement, full of panic, fearfulness and anxiety, apart from much anger. I was subject to harsh insults by the journalist who started this whole process of targeting and violence, and by the audience she invited to use the hateful discourse against me. In addition to insults, words such as ’perverts, deviants, and paedophiles’, the violent threats were intense in private messages and comments made under the posts I had shared before. These included threats of physical violence and sexual violence in particular. I cut my social media visibility for a while. Screenshots of the photos I once shared were taken before I protected my online accounts. These were also disseminated online. Then I got threatening phone calls. They also made the process extra hurtful for me. I felt like they were over my shoulders. I even wondered if I was safe at home.”

Research participants have indicated that often they are subjected to digital violence repeatedly. For instance,  a hate speech campaign all of a sudden becomes widespread very rapidly through the common involvement of perpetrators with diverse affiliations (like pro-government media, TERFs (Trans exclusionary radical feminists), political leaders, bot and troll accounts etc), acquiring a dimension that threatens even the physical safety of the individual. Such scenario, acutely remind us to acknowledge that the binary divisions between online and offline spaces is invalid when we consider the experiences of the queer community. This reality is also one of the main findings of our research. Research participants, through their lived experience, spoke about the direct co-relation between online and offline spaces. Many argue that offline discrimination, hate speech and violence deriving from cis-heteronormativity which also reflect within online spaces. In addition, online harassment can lead to real-life violence, stalking and further hate crimes in daily lives of LGBTQIA+ communities.

Research participants have indicated that often they are subjected to digital violence repeatedly. For instance,  a hate speech campaign all of a sudden becomes widespread very rapidly through the common involvement of perpetrators with diverse affiliations (like pro-government media, TERFs (Trans exclusionary radical feminists), political leaders, bot and troll accounts etc), acquiring a dimension that threatens even the physical safety of the individual.

Strategies to cope with digital violence

As stated previously, given the lack of protective legislative measures and the biased attitudes of law enforcements, LGBTQIA+ survivors of digital violence mostly do not even attempt to report the rights violations as they fear being further discriminated against, or they already know that the system will operate against them. Given the fact that in Türkiye, protective and preventive laws and regulations are not enacted, we highly recommend that further advocacy be carried out by creating allies in the field of law. In addition, as for the social media platforms, we suggest for a safer digital environment that is mostly free from discriminatory rhetoric and practices: (i) Community rules of social media platforms should be updated in a way that includes LGBTQIA+ sensitive criteria; (ii) Social media platforms should take additional steps to protect LGBTQIA+s such as setting up specific units of trained staff specialising in online gender based violence, and (iii) Social media platforms should work in coordination with LGBTQIA+ organisations to receive the necessary training and have continual consultancy sessions.

Conclusion

Relying on the current developments and existing data and reports[3] on the human rights situation in Turkiye, we can say that increasing anti-democratic and authoritarian policies and practices of the government negatively affects the lives of LGBTQIA+ communities in online and offline spaces. While anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric and hate speech of the government officials and leaders is increasing day-by-day, it fuels the hatred in the society against LGBTQIA+s and encourages the potential perpetrators both in online and offline spheres. SOGIESC-based hate crimes including hate speech are generally left unpunished due to the Although the rates and frequencies of being exposed to digital violence are high because of aforementioned impunity in gender-related cases, LGBTQIA+ people who experienced digital violence or are exposed to hate speech do not report/appeal the incident, and it creates a vicious circle between violence and injustice. LGBTQIA+ individuals do not believe there is any mechanism that would protect them or prevent violence they are subject to.

The study also shows that while social media is a great tool and opportunity for LGBTQIA+ people in Turkiye as a ground where they raise their voice for their rights and freedoms, express their identity and sometimes seek justice, they also experience digital violence including threats, insults, intimidation, attacking their SOGIESC, social media lynches, hate campaigns as well as attacks over their digital and physical security. Receiving that much hatred and violence from the same platforms causes long-term damage and harm to their mental health. Lack of protective mechanisms and risks of both digital and physical security leave LGBTQIA+ survivors to cope with the attacks by their own methods such as blocking, reporting it to social media platforms, self-censorship, etc.

While anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric and hate speech of the government officials and leaders is increasing day-by-day, it fuels the hatred in the society against LGBTQIA+s and encourages the potential perpetrators both in online and offline spheres.

From the results of the study, we can gather that human rights organisations, LGBTQIA+ organisations, social media platforms and dating apps each have their own responsibility in addressing the issue of online gender-based violence. The responsibilities of LGBTQIA+ organisations are two-fold: First, they need to carry out further work to analyse the digital climate for the queer community, and to update them on the current active protective and preventive mechanisms. The second is to strengthen the LGBTQIA+ persons subjected to digital violence through psychosocial and well-being support. As for the advocacy work, the gender-based digital violence needs to be an area of research through a more comprehensive take on the issue, including a queer feminist perspective. Further advocacy strategies to put censorship on LGBTQIA+ users on the spotlight need to be created. And last but not least, more  advocacy work towards social media platforms seems to be a right path for the queer activists in such political context.