Turkey targets thousands in social media crackdown
Authorities in Turkey were after some 10,000 people in ongoing investigations regarding their use of social media.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Authorities in Turkey were after some 10,000 people in ongoing investigations regarding their use of social media in a crackdown that has seen several thousand others detained or jailed in the past six months, according to the Interior Ministry.
The crackdown coincided with the botched mid-July military coup attempt, the ensuing government purges in bureaucracy, and a wave of arrests targeting pro-Kurdish politicians.
The number of social media users the police captured in that duration was 3,710, of whom 1,656 the courts remanded to prison in pre-trial detentions.
Over 1,200 people were set free on condition of judicial supervision, 767 were released, and 84 remained under arrest.
Social media users under investigation or detention faced various charges mostly related to Turkey’s definition of terrorism and insults to state officials.
The charges included “inciting people to hatred and agitation, praising, disseminating propaganda on behalf of and openly declaring an alliance with a terrorist organization, insulting state officials, targeting the indivisible integrity of the state and the safety of the public life.”
In a Saturday press release on its website, the Ministry revealed the General Directory of Security Affairs determined the identities of the 10,000 people investigated in such cases.
The Ministry explained “the fight against terror was carried out resolutely on social media,” as cooperation with service providers in the country and international corporations such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube was at the “highest” level.
Turkey had enforced several 24 hours-long blanket Internet outages in the past several months.
The outages occurred most notably in the Kurdish-majority provinces, and particularly after the early November arrests of the Co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas, Figen Yuksekdag, and 10 lawmakers.
Users in the Kurdish region experienced a similar days-long Internet cut off before, in October, when police detained the Co-mayors of Diyarbakir Gultan Kisanak and Firat Anli.
Arbitrary denial of access to the Internet by authorities had reached Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and proxy services such as the Tor Project and Tunnel Bear which enables users to circumvent restrictions and bans.
According to the US Government-funded think-tank Freedom House, press and social media in Turkey in 2016 was not free.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany
