You May Write, But You Cannot Exist" - The Anatomy of Digital Arrogance
The struggle for a language's existence in the digital world is often fought amidst silent codes and invisible algorithms. We make written, civilized, and entirely justified demands just to infiltrate those codes and secure a shelf in that universal library with our own letters. However, sometimes the shiny, universal, and inclusive masks of those digital platforms fall off with a single piece of feedback. The face that emerges is the very embodiment of arrogance, condescension, and that familiar censorious mentality striving to confine a language within the boundaries of a "favor."
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The official response I received via the Play Store from the development team of Inkspired, which claims to be a global publishing platform, in return for my request for Kurdish (Kurmancî) language and category support, is the exact manifesto of this mentality.
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I am including that response here in its original language, without touching a single comma, to leave a mark on history and the pages of this book:
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"Inkspired already serves 10 languages with a very very small team and we do it very well. The fact you demand us to serve (your) language and put 1 star because of it it’s essentially an abuse and against our terms of use as well. You can write in Kurdish, nobody has ever prohibited of doing so. Learn to ask things in a better way. Sorry."
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This brief, angry, and amateurishly written paragraph is actually a perfect summary of how minority languages or non-dominant identities are viewed in the digital age. Let us dissect the anatomy of this "digital arrogance" word by word.
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1. The Illusion of "You Can Write, Nobody Prohibited It"
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This is the most crucial, dangerous, and visionless sentence of the text. A digital publishing platform assumes it offers freedom to its authors by telling them, "You can write in any language you want." Yet, for a work to exist in the digital world, it is not merely enough to be "written"; it must be "categorizable."
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If there is no option for that language in your interface, the author is forced to select a false category such as "English," "Turkish," or "Unknown Language" when uploading their book to the system. The physical equivalent of this is as follows: You go to a colossal library with a Kurdish novel in your hand. The head librarian tells you, "Of course, you can leave your book here, it is not prohibited. But we do not have a Kurdish shelf, label, or catalog. You can throw your book into that corner, on the floor, among the nameless piles."
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This is not freedom. This is a permitted invisibility. It is the freedom to be tossed into a digital dumpster. It is being condemned to a void where algorithms, search engines, and readers will never find you. The truth that the Inkspired team fails to understand (or chooses to ignore) is this: Being able to write in a language is not a favor; the recognition of that language by the system, its existence as a category, is a fundamental right.
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2. The Criminalization of Criticism as "Abuse"
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The platform accuses a user of "abuse" for criticizing its own shortcoming (failing to accommodate the language of an audience of 35 million) and giving the app 1 star due to this vital deficiency. They even wield a veiled threat by deeming this "against the terms of use."
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An app receiving a low rating for lacking a fundamental function or inclusivity is the most natural mechanism of app stores. Here, however, a voice seeking its rights and demanding visibility is instantly coded as "aggressive" or "abusive." When you confront them with the system's flaw, the problem is not sought in the legitimacy of your demand, but in "how you dared to voice it with a 1-star review." This is the digital version of gaslighting—the tactic of those in power making the victim feel guilty.
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3. A Condescending Disciplinary Institution: "Learn to Ask Things in a Better Way"
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"Learn to ask things in a better way."
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This sentence is one of the most shameful dialogues a tech company could ever establish with a customer or author. Behind it echoes that familiar, commanding voice spoken for centuries to the marginalized and to those claiming their rights: "If you want a right, you must ask for it bowing your head, like a well-behaved child, quietly, and within the boundaries of politeness we have set. Otherwise, we will not listen to you."
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We do not use literature, language, and our existence to be "well-behaved children"; we use them to tear down walls and make our voices echo through those massive silences. The failure of a language spoken by 35 million people to make it into the 10 languages that small team "does very well" might be a technical inadequacy; that is understandable. But to consider the confrontation of this flaw as an insult and then advise an author to "behave" is an intellectual collapse.
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Conclusion: Shattering the Screen
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This response is the most concrete, vivid, and tragic proof of why this book had to be written. We are not here to submit to the favor of "it is not prohibited to write in Kurdish." We are here to code our letters into those algorithms, to boldly carve the "Kurmancî" option into those drop-down menus, and to pull the literature in our own language out from among the nameless piles to place it on the shelf it deserves.
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The management of Inkspired may be "sorry"; but we are not sorry. We are writing about how an invisible mass will shatter that very screen.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwxsQgHlPvg
and then Add to home screen.