Hakikat Sonrası Dönemde Sosyal Medya Manipülasyonu: Suudi Twitter'ın Türk Ürünlerini Boykot Kampanyası

Abstract

Twitter (X) ve Facebook gibi sosyal medya platformları, 17 Aralık 2010’da Tunus’ta başlayıp Mısır, Bahreyn, Yemen, Libya ve Suriye’ye yayılan Arap Halk Ayaklanmaları sırasında aktivistler tarafından yoğun biçimde kullanılmış ve bu dönemde “özgürleştirici teknolojiler” olarak müjdelenmiştir. Ancak günümüzde sosyal medyanın, otoriter rejimler tarafından bilgi kontrolü amacıyla etkili bir araca dönüştüğü yaygın biçimde kabul edilmektedir. Bu bağlamda, bu çalışma post-truth (post-gerçeklik) çağında sosyal medya manipülasyonunu, Suudi Arabistan’ın 3–16 Ekim 2020 tarihleri arasında Türk ürünlerine karşı başlattığı Twitter boykot kampanyası üzerinden incelemektedir. ABD, Rusya ve Çin gibi büyük güçlerin sosyal medya operasyonlarına ilişkin kapsamlı bir literatür bulunmasına rağmen, Ortadoğu ülkelerinin benzer faaliyetlerine dair araştırmalar oldukça sınırlıdır. Bu açıdan çalışma, Ortadoğu’daki sosyal medya operasyonlarına yönelik literatüre katkı sunmayı hedeflemektedir. Ayrıca söz konusu boykot kampanyası, sosyal medyanın uluslararası ilişkilerde algı yönetimi ve anlatı kontrolü amacıyla nasıl stratejik biçimde kullanıldığına dair ampirik bir örnek oluşturmaktadır. Araştırma, Makine Öğrenimi (ML) ve Doğal Dil İşleme (NLP) tekniklerini birleştiren Görüş Analizi Modeli ile yürütülmüş; elde edilen bulgular Gephi ile görselleştirilmiştir. Sonuçlar, Suudi Arabistan’daki Türk ürünlerine yönelik boykotun yalnızca ekonomik bir tepki olmanın ötesine geçtiğini; Türkiye karşıtı politik söylemin, milliyetçi duygulara hitap eden içerikler ve yanıltıcı bilgiler yoluyla geniş kitlelere sistematik biçimde yayıldığını ortaya koymaktadır.

Keywords

• Sosyal Medya
• Boykot
• Makine Öğrenimi
• Türkiye
• Suudi Arabistan

Social Media Manipulation in the Post-Truth Era: The Saudi Twitter Campaign to Boycott Turkish Products

Abstract

Social media platforms such as Twitter (X) and Facebook were extensively used by activists during the Arab Uprisings that began in Tunisia on December 17, 2010, and spread to Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, and Syria, and were heralded during this period as “liberation technologies”. However, it is now broadly acknowledged that social media has become an effective tool for information control in the hands of authoritarian regimes. In this context, the study examines social media manipulation in the post-truth era by analyzing the Twitter boycott campaign launched by Saudi Arabia against Turkish products between October 3 and 16, 2020. While there is extensive literature on the social media operations of major powers such as the United States, Russia, and China, research on similar activities conducted by Middle Eastern countries remains limited. From this perspective, the study aims to contribute to the literature on social media operations in the Middle East. Furthermore, the boycott campaign provides an empirical example of how social media is strategically used for narrative control and perception management in international relations. The research was conducted using the Opinion Analysis Model that combines Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, and the findings were visualized through Gephi. The results demonstrate that the boycott of Turkish products in Saudi Arabia went beyond being a mere economic reaction and reveal that anti-Turkish political discourse was systematically disseminated to large audiences through nationalist emotional content and misleading information.

Keywords

• Social Media
• Boycott
• Machine Learning
• Türkiye
• Saudi Arabia

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