The Republic of Algorithms: Now it's our turn!

Let us recall for a moment: we had come to accept social media as "digital squares" where people produce content on almost every subject, get news about what is happening, connect with new people, and form social circles.

Is that still the case now?

I received hundreds of messages from parents in response to my article "Children in the Algorithm Field." Sensitive teachers and psychologists who care about the issue also wrote.

One mother was complaining that her son constantly plays violent games and watches violence-themed simulation content on TikTok.

Another mother said that after her 10-year-old daughter started watching makeup videos, she began constantly comparing herself to others.

Teachers, meanwhile, are drawing attention to almost the same problem: "Students don't listen to us because their attention spans have visibly decreased."

While people were worrying about children, they were actually describing themselves. Because all of us—from seven to seventy—are exposed to the same algorithms.

So let us ask: who decides which content we watch on social media?

We regulate food safety. We regulate banks and pharmaceuticals. So why are we leaving the safety of our minds entirely in the hands of private algorithms?

We open our phones. We don't choose the first video that appears. Nor the next one... In fact, most of the time, we don't even decide who or what to get angry at, what to laugh at, or what to be curious about.

Because algorithms determine our "emotional states." And they don't do this randomly.

In lawsuits filed in different countries around the world and in scientific reports prepared, it is cited that social media platforms use specially designed systems to keep users on screen for as long as possible. Endless scrolling, infinite video feeds, instant notifications, likes, and data-driven personalized content recommendations... These and similar digital "services" are now being loudly discussed not merely as technical features, but as extremely powerful mechanisms through which algorithms direct human behavior.

The lawsuit filed by the Istanbul Family Foundation in May against TikTok, X (Twitter), Google, Instagram, and Facebook was precisely about this great issue of humanity. In the meticulously prepared petition, it is emphasized that social media platforms have gone beyond being tools that enable content sharing and have become algorithmic systems that direct user behavior, manipulate attention spans, and generate addiction.

These determinations may seem exaggerated at first glance. Indeed, the companies in question also make similar and inconsistent defenses in lawsuits filed in many countries around the world.

However, the scientific literature says otherwise. The academic report submitted as an annex to the Family Foundation's petition, along with the studies and expert opinions cited therein, clearly demonstrates that children and adolescents, in particular, are more vulnerable to algorithmic systems. Social media platforms targeting young people, whose brain regions related to decision-making, impulse control, and risk assessment have not yet completed development, operate through "reward mechanisms" that target these vulnerabilities.

The instant, repetitive, and unpredictable content offered by social media platforms turns into addictive "stimulants" in this unstable environment.

The functionality of algorithms is also the greatest proof that billion-dollar companies know human psychology so well and that neurobiological vulnerabilities are being exploited.

The problem is not just children, adolescents, and young people. Looking at the platforms' user numbers, 70 percent of Türkiye's population are active social media users.

In this case, who will protect parents, teachers, journalists, literary figures, mayors, parliamentarians, academics, social scientists, doctors, ministers, district governors, governors, soldiers, commanders, bureaucrats, and heads of state from the algorithms?

The answer to "who" is embedded in the problem itself, and it appears that those who need to take administrative and human measures against this mechanism, which targets every individual in the country, are themselves under the target of the algorithms.

If this were not the case, legal regulations that would make social media companies' algorithms transparent would have been implemented long ago.

While television channels are regulated by RTÜK, food producers by the Ministry of Agriculture, pharmaceutical companies by the Ministry of Health, and banks by the BDDK, algorithms that affect public health, economic security, or public order have been left to the mercy of private companies.

So why should software that influences the attention, behavior, habits, and even emotional states of millions of people not be subject to any public oversight?

In our country, age regulations for children are being implemented, but there is a much larger issue being missed, and unfortunately, no decisive step has been taken on this matter. If algorithms that target the mental health of society like a virus seizing minds are not regulated, other restrictions will fail to achieve their purpose.

The Republic of Türkiye demanding algorithmic transparency from social media companies, establishing independent oversight mechanisms, and intervening in systems that work against society, within a framework that considers children's mental health, family structure, social peace, and public health, is as vital as any defensive maneuver.

The fact that TikTok's data infrastructure has passed into the orbit of Zionist capital and lobbies through Oracle is enough to threaten our national security. This alone should urgently move lawmakers to action.