The usage of Twitter by mps in political communication activities and their views on freedom of expression

Twitter is a medium that mediates the politicians to introduce themselves and their political activities to their voters in written, visual and audio formats, and to convey the expectations of the voters and follow the developments more closely. In this respect, it can be said that Twitter provides a wide range of expression to politicians and voters in the political communication process. From this point of view, in this study, it is aimed to reveal whether Twitter contributes to freedom of expression in the political communication process and the approaches of the 27th term deputies of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, which constitutes the universe of the research, towards these issues. For this reason, the research sought answers to questions such as how the platform contributes to political communication activities, how effective it is in making the voices of political actors heard, whether it is a platform that allows freedom of expression, and whether there is censorship regarding the posts made, based on the Twitter usage practices of the deputies. In the study, it has been seen that Twitter has opened an important area for freedom of expression in the context of political communication, but posts with profanity, insults and offensive content have caused them to adopt a critical view towards the platform. So, it is seen that the majority of the deputies who see Twitter as an area where the limits of freedom of expression are exceeded, are of the opinion that the company should take measures to prevent these posts.