RESEARCHING POLITICAL TROLLS AS INSTRUMENTS OF POLITICAL CONSERVATISM IN TURKEY: A Historical Framework and Methodological Reflections on a Discourse Community

Abstract

The Erdoğan-led AKP government encountered an unprecedented nationwide civilian uprising in 2013, the Gezi Park Protests, that was fuelled and coordinated through social media. This caused a reaction among Turkish government leaders, and some explicitly stated that they would have their own social media users as counter-insurgents on the online platforms. Political trolling emerged as a political factor in Turkey in the immediate aftermath of the Gezi Park Protests in 2013. This chapter observes pro-government trolls, aka Aktrolls, as a discourse community that evolved through major turning points but which always served the making of an authoritarian and conservative regime. Their primary role changed from surveillance to culture war agents, and then to critics of opposition municipalities. Yet, the overall goal was kept alive. This chapter emphasises the role of ethnography in delineating the rhetorical moves that trolls made to maintain their role as media instruments for political conservatism while material and personnel changes kept happening. © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Elisabetta Costa, Patricia G. Lange, Nell Haynes and Jolynna Sinanan; individual chapters, the contributors.