The internet is widely used by all age groups in Turkey, with official data showing that 88.8 percent of Turks aged between 16 and 74 have an active online presence.
The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) released its “Survey on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Usage in Households and by Individuals, 2024” on Tuesday, which covers the period between August 2023 and August 2024.
There was a 1.7 percent increase in the number of people who used the internet in the 16-74 age group in 2024, with 92.2 percent of internet users being men and 85.4 percent women.
A total of 73.7 percent of Turks used the country’s e-government services within the said period, with the figure 80.7 percent among men and 66.7 percent for women. The usage of e-government services was highest among the 25-34 age group, with 92.1 percent, and lowest among the 65-74 age group, at 25.6 percent.
The TurkStat data further showed that there was an increase in the number of people who used the internet for e-commerce, increasing from 49.5 percent in 2023 to 51.7 percent in 2024, with the figure including 54.1 percent of men and 49.3 percent of women in the country.
In the first three months of 2024, 76.7 percent of people who used the internet to purchase goods or services bought clothes, shoes, and accessories, followed by those who ordered deliveries from restaurants, fast food chains, and catering services (47.5 percent), purchased food and beverages from stores or meal kit providers (34 percent), bought cosmetics, beauty, and wellness products (32.4 percent) and ordered cleaning and personal hygiene products (29.2 percent).
The most popular social media and messaging applications among Turkish netizens were WhatsApp (86.2 percent), YouTube (71.3 percent) and Instagram (65.4 percent). When examining usage by gender, TurkStat found that men used WhatsApp at a rate of 89.5 percent, YouTube at 74.7 percent and Instagram at 67 percent, while women used WhatsApp at 82.9 percent, YouTube at 68 percent and Instagram at 63.9 percent.
Despite the increasing popularity of social media platforms in Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan described social media as one of the main threats to democracy in 2021.
Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has been relentless in its crackdown on critical media outlets, particularly after a coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
As an overwhelming majority of the country’s mainstream media has come under government control over the last decade, Turks have taken to social media and smaller online news outlets for critical voices and independent news.
Turks are already heavily policed on social media, and many have been charged with insulting Erdoğan or his ministers, or criticism related to foreign military incursions and the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and natural disasters like earthquakes.
A recent survey conducted in Turkey by the İstanbul-based Areda Survey, showed that 63.2 percent of respondents feel anxious when they express their views on social media.
A report released by the US-based Freedom House in October showed that internet freedom in Turkey has steadily declined over the past decade, with the country again ranking among the “not free” countries concerning online freedoms.
A new media law known as the “disinformation law” passed by the Turkish parliament in October 2022 is also seen as contributing to the declining internet freedoms in the country as reporters and social media users could be jailed for up to three years for spreading “fake news.”