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Turkey: All social media must appoint Turkish censor, hand over intel about users

Aug 1, 2020 11:00 am By Christine Douglass-Williams

Here is another indication of the emboldening of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan after the conquest of the Hagia Sophia. As reported previously on Jihad Watch:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become increasingly oppressive as he continues to strive to revive the Ottoman Empire. He deems Europe to be a “sick man” and “collapsing.” Now Erdogan is now more emboldened than ever after he has seized his latest conquest: Hagia Sophia. Erdogan is now tightening his grip. His Islamist party is pushing a bill “to crack down on citizen’s right to post freely on social media, forcing companies to censor or face fines and restrictions.” He also wants the identity of users unveiled.

Even worse, the Turkish government will also demand that social media companies hand over intel about users. This leaves dissidents of Turkey in precarious position:

The law requires international social media networks with over one million Turkish visitors daily — companies like Twitter and Facebook — to appoint a special representative to the Turkish government so that Erdogan has a direct line to them and can easily demand the erasure of content he disagrees with.

“Turkey Passes Law Mandating All Social Media Appoint Turkish Censor,” by Frances Martel, Breitbart, July 29, 2020:

Lawmakers in Turkey passed a law Wednesday requiring social media companies to appoint a “representative” to respond to government demands for censorship, a push President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed would occur after social media users mocked his newborn grandchild.

Erdogan’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), the majority in the Turkish Parliament, pushed the law through with the help of its usual ally, the minority Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, the law “sets a formal definition of social media providers and aims to designate a responsible representative for investigations and legal proceedings relating to offenses on platforms.” The law will take effect on October 1.

The law requires international social media networks with over one million Turkish visitors daily — companies like Twitter and Facebook — to appoint a special representative to the Turkish government so that Erdogan has a direct line to them and can easily demand the erasure of content he disagrees with. The representative will also presumably be responsible for content that violates Turkish law, such as insults against the president or insults against Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey (both are crimes). Any individual representing the country must be a Turkish citizen, which would protect Ankara from creating any international turmoil if police arrest them for alleged violations of the law.

“Social network providers would have 48 hours to respond to orders to remove offensive content,” Anadolu added. “Providers will also take necessary measures to store data on users in Turkey inside the country.”

Human Rights Watch issued a statement on Monday prior to the law’s passage warning that it would “greatly increase online censorship, particularly in light of the country’s poor record on freedom of expression.”

“It is essential for everyone who values and champions free speech to recognize how damaging these new restrictions will be in a country where an autocracy is being constructed by silencing media and all critical voices,” Tom Porteous, deputy program director at Human Rights Watch, said in the statement. “Social media companies should loudly and unequivocally call on Turkey to drop this law, and the EU should resolutely back this call.”

Erdogan heavily cracked down on national media in the aftermath of the failed coup against his government in 2016, which he blamed, without evidence, on Pennsylvania Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen. Erdogan ordered police to shut down any media outlets suspected of being “Gülenist,” resulting in the immediate end of operations for 131 media outlets that year. In addition to those shut down, Erdogan seized opposition newspapers like Zaman, turning them into state propaganda outlets, or otherwise ensured the ownership of newspapers like Hurriyet, once reliably moderate in its coverage, fell into the hands of personal friends.

The law barreled through the Turkish parliament at high speed, a response to Erdogan’s public outrage on July 1 that some on social media had made jokes about the birth of his latest grandchild, born of his daughter and Turkey’s Finance Minister. Users reportedly joked that the child was not related to the finance minister, implying infidelity on the part of Erdogan’s daughter. The jokes prompted Erdogan to declare social media in general un-Turkish and threaten laws to punish those who would speak freely about him and his family on those platforms….

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Filed Under: free speech, Internet jihad, Turkey Tagged With: Justice and Development Party (AKP), Recep Tayyip Edogan


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Comments

  1. Peter Buckley says

    Aug 1, 2020 at 11:13 am

    Well, Erdogan seems determined to take the Turks down the same route as the Mullahs in Iran, which is excellent news in the long run, as Iran has gone from being 95% muslim in 1979 to around 50% now.

    “Konda, a pollster, found in 2019 that Turkish youths were less likely than the wider population to identify themselves as “religious conservative.” They were less likely to fast, pray regularly or (for females) cover their hair. Ipsos, an international pollster, found that only 12% of Turks trust Islamic clerics. SODEV, another pollster, found that 60.5% of youths that support Erdoğan said they would prefer to live in Christian Switzerland with half the salary they would earn in Muslim Saudi Arabia. SODEV’s study also found that 70.3% of respondents think a talented youth would never be able to get ahead in professional life without political/bureaucratic “connections,” i.e., without a hidden touch of nepotism. And only 30% of them think one could freely express his opinion on social media.”

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16277/turkey-brain-drain-youths

    Follow the links, as always. My browser allows almost instant translation into English from the Turkish…

  2. Ray Jarman says

    Aug 1, 2020 at 12:16 pm

    Erdogan insulted Mustafa Kemal when he tore up the constitution that Kemal wrote and then to state “insults against the president or insults against Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,” is an attack on history and common sense. The Kemal constitution provided for the military to ensure that no religious party would ever come to power in which Erdogan destroyed. I believe that Erdogan envisions himself and his government as a rebirth of the “Young Turks.”

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 1, 2020 at 10:45 pm

      Good point.

  3. Daniel Triplett says

    Aug 1, 2020 at 3:10 pm

    Lapdogs Suckerberg and Dorsey will happily comply. This is one of the main reasons they censor honest criticism of Islam — because many of the OIC states won’t let them do business there if they don’t. Like Pakistan, with 208,000,000 people. So, when faced with the choice of protecting Western Civilization and winning the 1400 year Islamic War, or fattening their wallets, they choose their own wallet every single time.

    • James Lincoln says

      Aug 1, 2020 at 3:42 pm

      Daniel Triplett says,

      “…when faced with the choice of protecting Western Civilization and winning the 1400 year Islamic War, or fattening their wallets, they choose their own wallet every single time.”

      There is NO evidence to suggest that that is NOT true…

      • GreekEmpress says

        Aug 2, 2020 at 12:01 am

        It will be interesting to see what Facebook and Twitter do in response. I don’t hold out much hope when Iranian threats to annihilate Israel get a pass because it’s “political commentary”.

    • David Curtis says

      Aug 2, 2020 at 6:54 am

      Soon be seeing erdogood in beard, withall the usual ayatooolers dresses on.

  4. Keith O says

    Aug 1, 2020 at 5:02 pm

    This looks like Edogan has been talking to his Chinese mate Winnie the Pooh.
    China got Suckarseburg to basically do the same thing as a means of stopping any opposition.
    Erdogan is a tinpot dictator with delusions of adequacy, a bully and a VERY dangerous individual.

    • David Curtis says

      Aug 2, 2020 at 6:56 am

      You get 10 big points for that.

  5. gravenimage says

    Aug 1, 2020 at 10:47 pm

    Turkey: All social media must appoint Turkish censor, hand over intel about users
    ……………

    More crushing of freedom of speech in Turkey. They are no ally of ours.

    • David Curtis says

      Aug 2, 2020 at 6:57 am

      Yep you see it as is, they should be thrown out of nato

      • gravenimage says

        Aug 3, 2020 at 9:57 pm

        Agreed, David. This should have happened long since.

  6. JoBo says

    Aug 2, 2020 at 5:12 am

    Erdogan is the anti-Christ.

  7. SAFI says

    Aug 2, 2020 at 10:07 am

    If you think turkish censorship affects only people inside Turkey you’re wrong. There are comedians in Germany being prosecuted for “insulting” Erdogan. Just a few days ago I read about a Lebanese TV-host of Armenian origin who is facing trial for “insulting” Erdogan (in Lebanon!) … Compliant middle east and even european governernments are even allowing kidnappings of turkish dissidents on their own territory…

  8. James Lincoln says

    Aug 2, 2020 at 10:30 am

    Consider this scenario:

    Turkey and Greece are both NATO members.

    Say Greece were attacked by a non-NATO country, say Iran.

    Would Turkey help other NATO members defend Greece against this attack?

  9. Chris D says

    Aug 2, 2020 at 1:32 pm

    Facebook and Twitter already censor content for the DNC. I’m sure they would happily do it for an Islamic Dictator.

  10. OLD GUY says

    Aug 2, 2020 at 7:46 pm

    Erdogan is a dictator make no doubt about it. He wants to lead the Muslim/Islamic dictatorship of the world.
    The liberal one border supporters won’t enjoy it, he will make slavery and genocide a top priority for the new muslim world.

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