Influencer sentenced to five months after sharing ‘obscene posts’ taken in Amsterdam

ISTANBUL

A Turkish social media influencer has been sentenced to five months in prison by a local court for posting photos of sexual objects in Amsterdam on her social media account.

Merve Taşkın, a 23-year-old social media personality, went to the Netherlands on her birthday last year and visited the Sex Museum and Red Light District in the world-famous port city.

Taşkın shared photos of sexual objects, including a giant penis statue in the museum she took there, and also posed in her underwear in a red cabin where sex workers stand.

About three months later, she was detained by the gendarmerie teams at a hotel in Çanakkale where she was staying, upon the order of the Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Taşkın, who was notified that an investigation was opened on charge of obscenity, was sued for up to three years in prison on grounds that she shared obscene posts.

Defending herself at a trial held at the Istanbul 20th Criminal Court of First Instance, Taşkın said she had the photos taken in a museum and shared them on her social media account.

The court sentenced the social media influencer to six months in prison and reduced the sentence to five months due to “good behavior,” deferring the announcement of the verdict.

Taşkın will be subject to five years of probation due to her sentence, and she will be imprisoned for five months if she commits a crime during this period.

“It shows how far behind the world we are in the scope of freedom of expression,” Taşkın said following the verdict.