Turkey's
combative prime minister warned on Thursday that he would eradicate
Twitter in the wake of damaging allegations of corruption in his inner
circle that have spread across social networks in recent weeks.
"We
will wipe out Twitter. I don't care what the international community
says," premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at an election rally in the
western province of Bursa.
"They will see the Turkish republic's strength," he added.
The
Internet Publishers Association, a body representing online and media
companies, said the move was an attempt to "destroy freedom of
expression".
"The prime minister having the power to shut down
Twitter will be the confirmation of dictatorship," it said in a
statement published by local media on Thursday.
Turkey, which has more than 10 million Twitter users, has seen access to thousands of sites blocked in recent years.
YouTube
was banned for two years up to 2010 because of material deemed
insulting to the country's revered founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Erdogan,
Turkey's all-powerful leader since 2003, has been under mounting
pressure since audio recordings spread across social media that appeared
to put him at the heart of a major corruption investigation.
Recordings
include an apparent discussion between Erdogan and his son about hiding
money, as well as others in which he appears to be interfering in
business deals, court cases and media coverage.
Some of the most
damaging information has come from a Twitter account under the name
Haramzadeler ("Sons of Thieves"), which appears to have access to a huge
trove of secret documents and police wiretaps linked to the
investigation.
Erdogan has dismissed most of the recordings as
"vile" fakes concocted by his rivals, and threatened to ban YouTube and
Facebook after crucial local elections on March 30.
"This has
nothing to do with freedoms. Freedom does not mean the right to intrude
on someone's privacy, or to pass the state's secrets to the
international arena," Erdogan said on Thursday.
Erdogan's
government has been rocked by a vast corruption probe launched in
December which saw dozens of people rounded up, including close business
and political allies of the prime minister.
The Turkish strongman
has accused associates of a former staunch ally — US-exiled cleric
Fethullah Gulen — of being behind the graft probe that claimed the
scalps of four ministers.
Gulen has denied any involvement.
Turkey recently tightened government control of the Internet and the judiciary, generating criticism from rights groups.
No comments:
Post a Comment