Erdoğan's remarks came after insults were directed at his son-in-law Berat Albayrak on social media. Declaring the tweets "immoral" and "dishonourable", Erdoğan pledged a bill to control "this kind of media".
This statement was originally published on bianet.org on 1 July 2020.
Social media should be either banned or controlled and regulated, President and Chair of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan suggested today (July 1) at a meeting with his party’s provincial chairs.
The president’s remarks came after insulting messages were sent to Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, Erdoğan’s son-in-law, last night when he announced with a tweet the birth of his child.
Defining the tweets as “immoral,” “dishonorable” and “inhuman,” Erdoğan went on to say, “We want this kind of media to be completely removed, controlled.”
“We’ll never stop chasing these low lifes who attack a family and the values they think they represent through a baby who just opened its eyes to the world,” the president said.
“Now do you understand why we are against social media such as YouTube, Twitter, Netflix? To eliminate these immoralities. Social media should be organized. We want these environments to be regulated.
“Turkey is not a banana republic. We will bring our proposal on this issue to the parliament. When the legal procedure is complete, this will enable every kind of method [of regulation].
“As soon as we bring the [suggested regulations] to our parliament, we want our parliament to consider the complete removal of such social media channels.
He also criticized social media companies for avoiding financial responsibility in Turkey, contrary to other countries.
The AKP recently made moves to be more active on social media. On Friday, Erdoğan appeared on a live broadcast with students ahead of university entrance exams. Outraged because the exams were not postponed, the youth sent hundreds of “no vote” messages on the live chat and it became a trending topic on Twitter.
The ruling party had also initiated a “social media ethics campaign,” in early May, calling on its supporters to put green circles on their social media profiles. The project was canceled after 40 days as some “green-circle” accounts sent tweets with sexual harassment and sexual assault content to pro-opposition figures.
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