serkan

taylorfrancis.comCensoring Huysuz | 41 | Drag on Turkish TV and infringement of culturaHuysuz Virjin (Grumpy Virgin) (1932–2020) was Turkiye’s first mainstream drag queen and beloved cultural icon whose career spanned through the 1970s to 2010s.

After three years of meticulous work, my very first academic publication is finally out in The Routledge Companion to Drag: www.routledge.com/The-Routledg... My chapter, “Censoring Huysuz: Drag on Turkish TV and Infringement of Cultural Expression,” grew out of my Master's thesis in +

Comparative Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam: www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi... Sadly, this publication is particularly timely, given the recent, unprecedented attacks by the regime in power in Turkiye against queer NGOs and activists, alongside a stark increase in censorship.+

These developments underscore how critical it is to continue researching, exposing the mechanisms of authoritarianism, and making our voices heard.

We are in the midst of a phone addiction pandemic, and addictive design elements are among its main causes. Many actors and structures must be held accountable, but we must not overlook a distinctive pattern among some popular apps today: certain Chinese-made platforms and apps - such as TikTok, +

SHEIN, Temu, mushrooming micro-drama apps, and mobile gam(bl)ing apps - face heavy restrictions and regulation in their domestic market, yet are exported abroad in their most harmful forms. This pattern makes the nineteenth-century Opium Wars an irresistible historical comparison. +

Read the first part of my most recent op-ed series on Chinese state-mandated corporate duality on Waag website: www.waag.org/en/article/o...

At the WorldPride Human Rights Conference 2026, I had the honour of chairing the panel “Artivism: Using Arts to Make Rights Visible,” featuring artivists from around the world who use fashion, community art projects, and art-science to reimagine human anatomy through queer, interspecies, and +

posthuman perspectives; support and embrace queer communities worldwide; and drive positive, inclusive change in the fashion sector. I am grateful to Jarko De Witte van Leeuwen, Henry de Vries, and Papa Oyeyemi for sharing this space with me, and to the organising committees of WorldPride 2026, +

Amsterdam Pride 2026, and the Human Rights Conference for making this possible. conference.worldpride.amsterdam/2026/session...

At “Queer Night, Queer Space,” I talked about how, for half a century, there seemed to be an informal bargain between Huysuz Virjin and Turkish society, one that seemed to say: “We are confining this queer nocturnal creature to the stage so that she can say something about our own confinement."

uva.nlBrain Bites: Queer Night, Queer SpaceLeading up to Amsterdam Dance Event, in this edition of Brain Bites, we'll dive with Serkan Kasapoğlu into the relationship between nightlife, drag and queer freedom in Türkiye. How can a drag…

I would like to thank Trut Fonds and Tim Meijerink Fonds for supporting this research project, which involves building an archive and disseminating its contents through academic and public seminars. www.uva.nl/en/shared-co...

"He--for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it--was in the act of slicing at the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters." Isn't it the loveliest opening line ever written? 💜

18 Sept

At Waag, we talked to the two artists in residence at Det Digit Art House to learn about their experiences and challanges: Read here: www.waag.org/en/article/m...

15 Sept

🏳️‍🌈 Read about queer nightlife, the entertainment sector, and state censorship in Turkiye. An interview with Repro Uncensored. reprouncensored.substack.com/p/visibility...

serkan reposted

12 Sept

🏳️‍🌈 💜 Was the ensuing self-censorship the ultimate goal of Meta's ban on queer and feminist NGOs? And, why not just leave? Waag spoke with Caspar Pisters, community manager of Club Church, Sauna Nieuwezijds and Free Willie, about the impact of the ban. waag.org/en/article/w...

12 Sept

Happy to share that I will be presenting this year's edition of the performance show 'The Goldfish Bleeding in a Sea of Sharks'. MATCH 1 – NAVAL BATTLE Frontex x Sumud Global Flotilla MATCH 2 – ONLINE BATTLE New Wave R4d Pill x Corporate Feminism Come experience these two battles!

waag.orgWaag | What's beyond the ban?Meta censored queer and feminist organisations earlier this year. Most of these accounts are now back thanks to the effort put in. However, this doesn’t mean that everything immediately returned to…

10 Sept

Meta censored queer and feminist organisations earlier this year. Most of these accounts are now back thanks to the effort put in. However, this doesn’t mean that everything returned to normal afterward. So, where do we stand now, and what are the next steps? www.waag.org/en/article/w...

🏳️‍🌈 Rob Jetten (Netherlands' first openly gay prime minister): "We were distracted. They started a debate on Olympics and on drag story time and on toilets while actually attacking equal access to health." +++

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I had the opportunity to hear them live at the World Pride Human Rights Conference in Amsterdam last month. 🦸 I also experienced for the first time how empowering representation actually is - never had the chance before! +++

👏 A big thank you to the organizers for the great effort they put into organizing this year's World Pride, as well as the conference.

🏳️‍🌈 Leo Varadkar (Ireland's first openly gay prime minister): "We need to find ways to introduce trans people to their neighbours." 💫 I wanted to take the time to appreciate how astute and farsighted both of these rainbow ceiling smasher politicians are! +++

reprouncensored.orgMeta and Turkish authorities are silencing queer communities online. — Repro UncensoredTurkiye’s censorship of LGBTQI+ groups exposes how state repression and Big Tech platform power increasingly operate together to silence queer communities online.

20 Aug

When the Censor Wears Two Masks: Meta, Ankara, and the Struggles of the Vibrant Queer Community in Türkiye www.reprouncensored.org/research-ove...

a.allout.orgUNESCO: Recognize Pride as cultural heritagePride could join UNESCO's list of the world's living cultural heritage – but none of the 800+ traditions on it are LGBT+ yet. Add your name to change that.

6 Aug

800+ traditions are inscribed as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage. None is LGBT+ – yet. The Netherlands is nominating the Pride movement. Sign to help make Pride heritage #PrideIsHeritage: a.allout.org/s/W7BRj/

serkan reposted

30 July

In this article, Serkan Kasapoğlu uses the theory of techno-feudalism to show how the removal of accounts belonging to queer and abortion organizations is not merely a moderation issue, but above all a matter of power and ownership. Read the article: www.waag.org/en/article/w...

ehe.movement-action.org/p/meta/share...

29 July

ehe.movement-action.orgSend legal notice to Meta saying they CANNOT use your face and imageAI glasses can film and share your voice and face without your consent. But you have a legal right to say no.

waag.orgWaag | Whose land is the feed? How techno-feudalism explains Meta's censorship on queer and pro-choiceThe platforms—Amazon, Google, Apple, Meta—are no longer ordinary firms competing in a market; they are fiefs. The way out is not a kinder lord; it is to stop being a tenant.

28 July

Meta's ongoing censorship against queer and women's rights organizations is technofeudalism at its best (or, worst). Read here: www.waag.org/en/article/w...

15 July

Read my most recent article on Meta's censorship against women and queers

Waag Futurelab@waag.org

In Dec 2024, Meta's censorship against women and queers began. Abortion funds, reproductive-health providers, queer groups, drag performers had their accounts restricted across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. This was becoming a trend. Read the article: www.waag.org/en/article/w...

The extremely nonsensical short hit dramas that flood Snapchat and Instagram feeds, with names such as "My Alpha Boss Gave Me Triplets," "Found My Daddy at the Construction Site," "Think Again! I'm the Hidden Boss Mom," often with calls to download apps that can be traced back to two Chinese media+

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Same with Douyin vs. TikTok. In China, strict government regulations compel Douyin to mandate a "Youth Mode" for minors, restricting screen time to 40 minutes a day and blocking late-night access. Also, Chinese authorities enforce policies that push educational, scientific, and cultural content.+

In contrast, TikTok operates in much more permissive regulatory environments.

companies (Dianzhong Technology and Jiuzhou Cultural Media) aiming transnational markets seem not to be so innocent. Interesting read: www.binance.com/en/square/po... China's domestic media ecosystem is aggressively sanitized while the same firms have every incentive to build+

addictive shallow products for international users, where neither constraint follows them. The same asymmetry runs through gaming. For Mobile Legends, while the state anti-addiction limits bind domestic titles (i.e. capped playtime and spending), the global version never has such limits.+

serkan reposted

2 July

At Waag, a "more-than-human" perspective shapes how we research, design, and ask questions. We enter fields of relation: with communities, technologies, infrastructures, materials, environments and nonhuman actors already involved in the situation. Read more: waag.org/en/article/w...

serkan reposted

29 June

European digital ID wallets advance big tech monopoly, not European sovereignty. "[Citizens] are forced to use Google software, if they want to use the wallet," says Danny Lämmerhirt, Senior researcher at Waag Futurelab. Read more and learn what you can do: waag.org/en/article/e...