İYİ Party leader urges President Erdoğan not to impose further restrictions on social media
ANKARA
İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener on July 8 urged the ruling party to refrain from imposing further social media restrictions, saying that the youth of the country will resist against them.
“They cannot control the youth on social media,” Akşener said, speaking at her party’s parliamentary group meeting.
Elaborating on the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) recent move to submit a bill to further control social media networks, Akşener suggested the government aims at a “perception operation” with an insulting post on Twitter directed at President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s daughter and son-in-law when they announced the birth of their fourth child.
“This is an effort to silence different thoughts by crushing them,” Akşener stated.
“Innocent journalists are put in prison, but those who send rape messages to innocent women can be released. But if you ask Mr. Erdoğan, the culprits are Netflix, YouTube, and Twitter. You cannot yield results with such stupid measures, Mr. Erdoğan,” she said.
“I warn Mr. Erdoğan, no walls set up in front of the youth can survive long,” Akşener said.
Although there is no draft yet, parliament is expected to deal with legislating a set of new regulations on social media. President and AKP chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed that measures to increase government control on the social media will be introduced as soon as possible.
