As the Turkish government moves towards a crackdown on social media…

The standing man
As the Turkish government moves towards a crackdown on social media, a new trend took Turkish-language Twitter by storm on Tuesday.

An artist’s unorthodox protest has captured the minds of demonstrators in Istanbul. Erdem Gunduz stood silently for eight hours straight in front of a portrait of the founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, after Taksim Square was reopened on Monday.

Hundreds joined the silent protester before police arrived and arrested those who refused to disperse. Copycat protests then cropped up across the country on Monday night in emulation of Gunduz.

On Tuesday morning, the hashtag duranadam’ (“standing man” in Turkish) exploded onto Twitter’s top trends.
Turkey’s anti-government protest movement has gathered significant momentum over the past two weeks. The unrest initially started out as a protest against the redevelopment of Gezi Park, located in Istanbul’s central Taksim Square. Reports of police brutality and the heavy-handed tactics employed to disperse activists acted as a catalyst, drawing more public support.

The government has adopted a zero-tolerance attitude towards protests, decrying them as illegal and driven by terrorists. The government intimated on Monday that the army could be brought in to bring the protesters to heel.