The Turkish government has listed about 126,000 social media accounts in Turkey as linked to alleged terrorist organisations since a controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
According to a report by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency on Saturday, police teams under the command of the cybercrime unit have determined the existence of 126,000 social media accounts related to alleged terrorist organisations in the last two years.
The report said about 50,000 out of 68,000 profiled social media accounts that allegedly posted pro-coup messages in the wake of the coup bid in July 2015 belong to alleged members of the Gülen movement.
According to the report, 17,000 of the social media accounts are allegedly linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), while a thousand of them are said to be connected to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
It was also claimed that 60 percent of social media posts believed to be supportive of “terrorist organisations” have been made by alleged members of the Gülen movement. The Turkish government led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has labeled the pacifist Gülen movement as a “terrorist organisation,” calling it “FETÖ.”
Police teams have reportedly identified 20,000 social media accounts that allegedly spread hate and threaten Turkey’s social order and national security, including insults targeting state officials.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has started to issue detention warrants in a massive investigation into social media accounts run by activists posting on subjects deemed controversial, the Gazete Duvar news website reported on Friday.
The Turkish National Police’s cybercrime department is monitoring some 45 million social media users in the country for possible criminal activity committed through the Internet.
The Interior Ministry announced that 514 social media accounts have been investigated, while legal action was taken against 313 social media users due to their posts, Gazete Duvar reported last week.
