On 27 October, DPI held an online roundtable meeting on ‘Digital Citizenship: Opportunities and Challenges for Peace and Democratisation in Turkey’ in collaboration with Oxford University. This was the third meeting of DPI’s series on peace and technology. The aim of this series is to engage participants in the theory and practice behind the growing role that technology can play to support, enhance and sustain peace and democratisation in Turkey and in the world.
We were joined by four speakers: Dr Emre Eren Korkmaz, Lecturer at the Oxford Department of International Development (ODID), Dr Türkay Salim Nefes, a research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) of the University of Oxford, Can Cakir, Director of the Center for Social Research at INGEV, and Ece Başay, Facebook’s Public Policy & Programs Manager. The speakers discussed the main findings of the Digital Citizenship in Turkey report, a joint project of the University of Oxford, Oxford Centre for Technology and Development Ltd (OCTD), Facebook and INGEV (Human Development Foundation). The discussion session focused on the relationship between digital citizenship and peacebuilding by analysing issues such as fake news, hate speech against minorities and conspiracy theories.
The online event brought together figures with diverse professional and political backgrounds from across Turkey, including political parties representatives, civil society workers, journalists, lawyers and academics. This event provided a valuable platform for this group of participants to continue to engage in an open and frank discussion about peace and democratisation themes. We were also delighted to be joined, virtually, by some of our donors and international experts from DPI’s Council of Experts.
The online RT forms part of a larger series of activities planned in the context of the project: ‘Forging Pathways to Peace and Democracy in Turkey’ supported by the Norwegian, Irish and Swiss governments.
