Turkey: How social media saved democracy

folarin okunola

July 19, 2016 10:01 AM

Fortunately for Turkey's collective national stability, the coup failed, thanks to social media - the tool with which President Erdogan reached out to his supporters to take to the streets and stand against the military imposters.

Turkey Coup Update

Over the weekend, the entire world was shocked at the news of the attempted coup in Turkey, which involved some military plotters trying to seize power from President Tayyip Erdogan by rolling out tanks into the streets and helicopter fire from the skies above Turkey's capital of Ankara.

Prior to the attempted coup, in which many innocent people lost their lives as tanks rolled over civilians like an hydraulic press compressing metal, Erdogan was not exactly the biggest fan of social media.

In 2014, he reportedly said, "We will not leave this nation at the mercy of YouTube and Facebook. We will take all the necessary steps in the strongest way including barring social media." Erdogan also allegedly added that both Facebook and YouTube were only good for promoting all kinds of immorality and espionage.

It would come as a very strange twist of fate that the same social media, which Erdogan believed to have no use outside of immoral entertainment and spy tactics, was what he turned to when his government was at the brink of a militarized exit.

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When news of the attempted coup broke on Twitter, reports from CNN's Turkish arm soon followed showing a video of Erdogan speaking to the Turkish citizenry via Apple's iPhone FaceTime video call app imploring them to "take ownership of Turkey's democracy."

Erdogan also took to Twitter with a similar message saying, 'I call our nation to the airports and the squares to take ownership of our democracy and our national will.' He also retweeted posts from the Turkish prime minister and the official Twitter account of the Presidency condemning the coup.

For someone who had previously condemned social media on the past, it seemed very convenient for Erdogan to then utilize it in securing his government's stay in power. It begs the same question stakeholders and tech enthusiasts in Africa have always asked African leaders - Why would you want to regulate social media when it has so many advantages?

Across the African continent, various governments, including Nigeria, have tried - sometimes successfully - to regulate social media and curb the rights of citizens to call out the failings of their leaders. Will the Turkish incident serve as proof to our leaders that social media can actually do more good than harm? Only time will tell.

folarin okunola