Digital Activism in Turkey: Istanbul Convention as a Symbol of Women’s Movement

ABSTRACT Digital platforms that allow individuals to interact and offer a public space where people can share the content they produce and seek their rights play a crucial role in organizing activist protests, promoting new representations, and presenting adversary political voices. New activism, called 'digital activism,' is the activities by individuals or organizations in the digital environment to create the social change they desire. Social movements that started on these platforms with the claim of a better world while expressing social discomforts that are unsuitable for the flow of life may also offer new solutions. This study reveals the social and political dimensions of how digital activism is shaped in Turkey through the Istanbul Convention, which appears to be the symbol where women, and non-governmental organizations, have struggled for years. The social struggle for both the existence and the implementation of the protection mechanisms of the Istanbul convention, was terminated by the Presidential decree, was analyzed with the content analysis method. Twitter posts under the hashtags "#İstanbulSözleşmesiYaşatır," (IstanbulConventionGivesLife), "#İstanbulSözleşmesindenVazgeçmiyoruz," (WeWon'tAbandonTheIstanbulConvention), "#İstanbulSözleşmesi" (IstanbulConvention) and explored categories related to the reflections of digital activism in Turkey was interpreted. According to the results, while the categories such as informing the public, not yielding, acting together for the benefit of society, and not giving up in the online struggle come to the fore, it is seen that digital is actively used in transferring activism offline. Another important finding of the research is that the main opposition party, individual activists, bar associations, and lawyers, especially women's non-governmental organizations, come to the fore as the most active groups and play an active role outside of digital platforms by directing the society. Keywords: Digital activism, Istanbul convention, Right-wing populism, Twitter hashtag, Women’s movements