Aydın Tiryaki (2026)

One of the most profound approaches in social sciences, the “Broken Windows Theory,” explains how minor signs of neglect in a physical environment can spiral into a major wave of chaos. Although this concept was formalized in 1982 by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, its experimental roots trace back to 1969 and the work of social psychologist Philip Zimbardo. Zimbardo demonstrated how a sign of disorder—such as an abandoned car with a broken window—could rapidly dismantle social norms of civility even in the safest neighborhoods. Today, this sociological reality manifests in a much more complex and dangerous form on digital platforms, as we have explicitly defined: The Broken Bytes Theory.

The Beginning of Digital Decay: Broken Bytes

What broken windows are to urban spaces, “broken bytes” are to the digital world. In digital environments, the first broken window is the first disrespectful comment, the first unjustified insult, or the first piece of deliberately spread misinformation under an article, video, or social media post.

• Perceptual Erosion: Every rude expression that goes unmoderated whispers to other users that the rules of civility no longer apply in that digital space.
• The Birth of “Small Monsters”: The transformation of individuals, who are normally respectful and mild-mannered in physical life, into “small monsters” due to the distance and lawlessness provided by the digital realm, is the digital reflection of the 1969 experiment.
• The Flight of Quality Audience: Just as peace-seeking residents are the first to leave a neighborhood where crime is on the rise, digital boorishness causes individuals seeking constructive discussion to withdraw from those spaces.

Turkey’s Digital Memory: From inet-tr to Today

To understand the roots of digital behavior in Turkey, one must look back to the early 1990s and e-mail groups like inet-tr. During those years, when the internet served only a very narrow audience, these groups acted as a laboratory for digital society.

Even within this limited community, the first examples of “Broken Bytes” were present. Profiles whose sole purpose was to disrupt the focus of discussion and devalue the efforts of others attempted to return under different names even after being removed, signaling the systemic vandalism we see today. The e-mail accidents of those days—such as private messages mistakenly sent to the entire group—taught us early on how sensitive digital communication is and how far human patience can be pushed.

Organized Pressure Mechanism: Troll Armies

Over time, this individual aggression evolved into an organized structure with the support of technological means and certain power centers. Today, we are no longer talking about sporadic vandalism, but rather a systematic “demolition army.”

• Systematic Destruction: Fed by financial resources and organized strategically, these digital armies launch simultaneous attacks to humiliate and silence dissenting voices.
• The Spiral of Silence: The greatest success of these armies is making people abandon expressing their views out of fear of losing their peace of mind or being insulted.
• Forced Self-Censorship: When individuals who wish to provide beneficial information are forced to lower their voices or close their communication channels in the face of these organized attacks, the digital square risks being left entirely to these armies. This is a process of self-censorship triggered not by choice, but by a survival instinct imposed by the system.

Responsibility of Platform Owners and Commercial Interests

A significant share of the blame for the growth of this pollution lies with platform owners. While it is technically possible to detect and clear these structures with simple algorithms, commercial interests often take precedence over social hygiene.

• Interaction Economy: For social media companies, every conflict is an interaction. Polarization causes people to spend more time on the platform, leading to higher advertising revenue.
• Obsession with Numerical Growth: Since cleaning up millions of fake or aggressive accounts would appear as a sharp drop in user numbers, companies hesitate to perform such a cleanup due to investor pressure.
• Forced Isolation: Because platform owners do not take adequate precautions, content creators are forced to close their comment sections to protect their labor and mental well-being. This results in the construction of a mandatory wall of silence through self-censorship, even when there is a chance for clean communication.

Conclusion: Closing the Doors as an Act of Dignity

From the first experiments in 1969 to the present day, the Broken Bytes Theory shows us that the only way to protect digital peace is to allow no room for decay. If platform owners do not keep these spaces safe, content creators closing their doors to comments is not a restriction; rather, it is a “shield of dignity” protecting freedom of thought and the passion for production. For an individual who wishes to spend their energy on creating new works rather than cleaning up organized noise, this isolation is the most rational way to survive in the digital age.

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A Note on Methods and Tools: All observations, ideas, and solution proposals in this study are the author’s own. AI (Gemini) was utilized as an information source for researching and compiling relevant topics strictly based on the author’s inquiries, requests, and directions; additionally, it provided writing assistance during the drafting process. (The research-based compilation and English writing process of this text were supported by AI as a specialized assistant.)