Did trolls play a role in demotion of AKP strongman?

The deputy chair in charge of the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) organization has been ousted surprisingly, leading to questions in my mind about whether the party's controversial social media strategy played a role in his demise.

During the AKP's congress on Sept. 12, Süleyman Soylu was re-elected to the party's 50-member decision-making committee, the MKYK, with the lowest number of votes compared to all other candidates. 

Worse than that for his career, he was not selected for the 21-member executive committee, the MYK, in which he was in charge of the party's organization. Mustafa Ata?, an AKP co-founder and a long-time aide of President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, replaced Soylu in this top job.

Soylu, who had been a career politician in center-right parties until 2009, joined the AKP in 2012 by Erdo?an's invitation and always stayed close to him. In 2012, he became the party's deputy chair for R&D and in 2014, its organizational leader. 

Both of Soylu's jobs were closely linked to the AKP's social media strategy, which was seen by ruling party leaders as increasingly important following the anti-government Gezi Park protests in 2013. And how was this strategy developed? Let's a take look at the chronology first:

- May-June 2013: 31,000,000 Facebook users and 7,200,000 million tweeters in Turkey turned to social media to be informed about the Gezi Park protests, which were censored by a large portion of traditional media due to government pressure. An Ebrandvalue search showed that during that time, there were 85 social media users opposing the government for each social media user supporting it.

- September 2013: The digital organization of AKP youth branches was overseen by Soylu, even before the Gezi...