Over 1,700 arrested over ‘terror propaganda’ via social media across Turkey

ANKARA

Some 1,734 people have been arrested for “making terror propaganda” on social media since the failed July 2016 coup attempt, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

“Cyber-police” working on identifying suspects making terror propaganda online have so far detained at least 3,894 people out of 22,088 identified by police since the coup attempt. 

Some 1,328 suspects have been released on probation and 1,734 have been arrested up to now.

A total of 69,937 social media accounts have been identified allegedly conducting “propaganda for terrorist organizations or terrorist acts.”

Meanwhile, 18,194 suspects are reportedly waiting for detention orders from prosecutors, while police are still working on identifying the owners of 47,849 social media accounts, according to officials.

Police have also worked to identify people who were allegedly making propaganda from abroad and have informed border gates of people detected. 

Previously, 948 people were detained for allegedly providing support to terror or spreading “terror propaganda” through social media after twin bombings in the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul in December 2016 that claimed 46 lives, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Feb. 8.

Security forces conducted operations across Turkey between Dec. 11, 2016 and Feb. 6, targeting suspects who allegedly supported terror organizations, spread “terror propaganda,” and “insulted statesmen or the security forces” through Facebook and Twitter after the attack.