İstanbul police detain at least 30 people for insulting Şeyma Subaşı, the wife of Turkey’s one of the richest and well-known TV presenters, Acun Ilıcalı. The suspects are accused of systematically insulting Subaşı on Instagram and Twitter.
Ilıcalı is known for his close relations with Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. His wife is criticized widely due to her lavish lifestyle.
Detentions over insult allegations on social media have become a daily practice in Turkey. The Ministry of Interior Affairs has recently announced over the past months that 10,000 people are currently under investigation for “insulting senior state officials” on social media.
The ministry also stated that between September 2016 – February 2017, a total of 3,710 social media users were investigated, of whom 1,656 were arrested. A total of 1,203 of those investigations resulted in releases on probation.
The ministry further said that cooperation with Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and national and international service providers has been carried to the next level.
On Feb. 3, Suay Karaman, an academic at the Ankara-based Gazi University and general secretary of the Association of Academic Staff (TÜMÖD), was sentenced to 11 months, 20 days in prison for his alleged insult of Erdoğan.
With new state of emergency decrees issued by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government last month, police were given the authority to directly access information on the identity of Internet users. (turkeypurge.com)
