Turkish gov’t prosecutes 267 people over social media posts in a week

The Turkish government has investigated 403 social media accounts and taken legal action against 267 users over the last week (July 16-July 23) on accusations of disseminating propaganda for alleged  “terrorist organisations,” the Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Monday.

“Legal action has been taken against 266 people and 459 social media accounts that propagandize for terrorist organizations, promote these organizations, openly declare that they are affiliated with terrorist organizations, incite people to enmity and hostility, insult state authorities, make attempts against the state’s indivisible integrity and the safety of society and engage in hate speech,” said the statement.

According to a report by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency on July 21, 2018, 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 a coup bid in July 2016 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.”

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