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Turkey has fiercely criticised Twitter for suspending more than 7,000 accounts that supported President Tayyip Erdogan, saying the company is a “propaganda machine” attempting to smear the government and trying to redesign Turkish politics.<\/p>\n
KEY POINTS:<\/p>\n
Twitter said it was taking down 7,340 accounts from a network detected early in 2020 that it said was being used to amplify political narratives favourable to Erdogan’s AK Party.<\/p>\n
“(This) has demonstrated yet again that Twitter is no mere social media company, but a propaganda machine with certain political and ideological inclinations,” said presidency communications director Fahrettin Altun.<\/p>\n
In a written statement, he added that allegations these were “fake” profiles designed to support the president and were managed by a central authority were untrue.<\/p>\n
He also said documents cited to support Twitter’s decision were unscientific, biased and politically motivated, and that it was scandalous to cite a report by individuals “peddling their ideological views”.<\/p>\n
Those remarks appeared to refer to a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory, with which Twitter shared its information, that said the network posted some 37 million tweets, promoting the AKP and criticising Turkey’s main opposition parties.<\/p>\n
“We would like to remind the company (Twitter) of the eventual fate of a number of organisations which attempted to take similar steps in the past,” Altun said.<\/p>\n
In the past, Turkey has blocked access to online encyclopaedia Wikipedia<\/a>, YouTube<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yaman Akdeniz, cyber rights expert and professor at Istanbul Bilgi University, said the accounts removed by Twitter were only “the tip of the iceberg” of other questionable activity.<\/p>\n “This looks like a bot network that I think is not very active,” he said, suggesting further investigation was needed.<\/p>\n “But it makes it official that bots are used in Turkey for political purposes.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n On Thursday, Twitter also said it removed more than 170,000 accounts tied to a Beijing-backed influence operation.<\/p>\n Tags:<\/b> Ece Toksabay, William Maclean, Andrew Cawthorne<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
See Campaign: <\/strong>https:\/\/www.platformexecutive.com\/product\/twitter-profile-and-strategic-swot-analysis\/<\/a>
Contact Information:<\/b>
Ece Toksabay, William Maclean, Andrew Cawthorne<\/p>\n
<\/a>, Wire<\/a>, United States<\/a>, English<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Turkey has fiercely criticised Twitter for suspending more than 7,000 accounts that supported President Tayyip Erdogan, saying the company is a “propaganda machine” attempting to smear the government and trying to redesign Turkish politics. KEY POINTS: Twitter is heavily criticised by the Turkish government for suspending 7,000 accounts supporting the President The country claims the … Continue reading Turkey calls Twitter a “propaganda machine” over removal of accounts<\/span><\/a> Continue Reading