This piece was written as part of Advox's partnership with the Small Media Foundation to bring you the UPROAR initiative, a collection of essays highlighting challenges in digital rights in countries undergoing the UN's Universal Periodic Review process. There is a wave of anti-refugee rhetoric running amok on Turkish social media. From openly racist statements made by far-right political party leaders to accounts claiming to be “news agencies” circulating disinformation to incite violence, social media is not making life safer for the over 4 million refugees within Turkish borders. There have been several points of escalation in the rhetoric; Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover provided a safe space for the Turkish far-right just like their international compatriots, and the Turkish elections in May 2023 saw refugees targeted by political campaigns. Yet, regardless of those spikes, this trend of increasing hate speech targeting refugees in Turkish social media has a longer history. An intuitive explanation would be based on the numbers; as the number of refugees increases, so does anti-refugee sentiment. There is, however, little to support this narrative. There is more empirical support for the exact opposite phenomenon: social contact with immigrants leads to more tolerance and positive sentiments rather than increasing hate. While there is no direct data as such in the specific example of Turkey, Zafer Partisi, a far-right political party that promises to kick all refugees out of Turkey, had a vote percentage higher than its national average in only one of the top five provinces with the highest concentration of refugees, and in two of the top 10, according to data from the ministry of interior’s migration management center. There is much documentation proving exposure to pro- or anti-immigrant narratives in the media affects attitudes toward immigration. Evidence that negative media exposure creates hostility and discrimination against immigrants is strong. The role of social media platforms in this narrative is still being researched. Existing findings suggest that social media is heavily receptive to narratives produced by traditional media, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume the opposite is also true. This forces us to engage with the anti-refugee radicalism in Turkish social media as an independent and very dangerous phenomenon in itself. Obviously, the country’s political atmosphere affects the media just like it affects pretty much everything in Turkey. Social media itself is an agent (or, more accurately, a large collection of agents) in this shift, though, not just a passive receiver. Influencers, streamers, and similar social media celebrities lead hordes of frustrated young men in targeting refugees. Twitch streamer Ahmet Sonuç, known as “Jahrein,” is one such figure. Using his popularity with young men as a gaming streamer, he routinely targets and dehumanizes refugees. Sonuç also targets domestic organizations that do not have a racist outlook toward Turkish refugees, frequently targeting political parties that favor policies for integration and implying that feminist organizations that refuse to frame sexual harassment problems in racist terms deserve harassment. Sonuç’s Twitter account was blocked by the pre-Musk Twitter administration in October 2022 for hateful conduct, but it was restored after the Musk takeover. Another example as such is the anonymous far-right YouTube content creator known as “Erlik.” Known for pushing militarist alternate histories and conspiracy theories, Erlik uses his Twitter account similarly for claiming the refugees are a demographic danger and praising anti-refugee policies by right-wing governments such as the UK’s, which the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) called out for promoting policies that fueled far-right violence. Erlik is also known for YouTube videos calling feminist women fighting sexual assault fascists, and targeting left-wing and pro-Kurdish social media users, claiming they are tied to terrorist organizations. The most vile sentiments are coming from anonymous Twitter accounts. Emboldened by their blue check marks, which can now be easily acquired in the absence of any vetting and oversight, these accounts routinely dehumanize refugees and level accusations against the immigrant population in Turkey for any issues, including spreading contagious diseases and, by doing so, recreate the “dirty immigrants” narrative. Ajans Muhbir (Informant Agency) is one of the prominent provocateur accounts. It is affiliated with the far-right politician Ümit Özdağ, who is the leader of a newly founded radical right-wing political party Zafer Partisi.