Since the 2016 attempted coup in Turkey, more than 215,000 people have been investigated for allegedly using ByLock, an encrypted‐message app. According to government officials and courts, the app was used exclusively by Fethullah Gülen's network, which the Turkish state classifies as a terrorist organization. Legal experts transformed ByLock data into vehicles of suspicion that could “testify” to past and future terrorism actions. They did so by combining counterterror doctrine and cultural narratives with digital and legal practices, including data extraction, analysis, legal writing, and courtroom confrontations. I call these practices evidencing terror, a technolegal method that, in setting up suspicion as an element of digital evidence, wields an extensive visceral and political force that suspends people's civil rights. By transforming digital “memories” into endless sources of punitive action, practices of evidencing terror crystallize a new authoritarian politics, one that rests on the intimidation of both state bureaucrats and marginalized communities.

中文翻译：

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 证明恐怖


自 2016 年土耳其未遂政变以来，已有超过 215,000 人因涉嫌使用加密消息应用程序 ByLock 而受到调查。据政府官员和法院称，该应用程序仅供 Fethullah Gülen 的网络使用，土耳其政府将其归类为恐怖组织。法律专家将 ByLock 数据转化为可疑工具，可以“证明”过去和未来的恐怖主义行动。他们通过将反恐理论和文化叙事与数字和法律实践相结合来实现这一目标，包括数据提取、分析、法律写作和法庭对抗。我把这些做法称为证明恐怖主义，这是一种技术法律方法，通过将怀疑作为数字证据的一个要素，运用了广泛的本能和政治力量，暂停了人们的公民权利。通过将数字“记忆”转化为无穷无尽的惩罚行动来源，证明恐怖主义的做法具体化了一种新的威权政治，一种建立在国家官僚和边缘化社区的恐吓之上的政治。