Minister calls on Twitter, Facebook to avoid ‘double standards’ in Turkey

ISTANBUL

Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Minister Binali Yıldırım has appealed for social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter not to apply double standards in Turkey with regard to cooperating over the cyber crime issue.

“We won’t let them consider us a third-class country,” he said in a televised interview on private broadcaster Habertürk, adding that the companies should cooperate with the Turkish government in cases of possible cyber crimes.

“The use of social media for crime and sedition, as well as to spread racist attitudes, disrupts public order. What’s more, it aggrieves thousands of people,” he said.

When asked about his earlier remark that unlike Twitter, Facebook had “responded positively” to the government’s request for cooperation, Yıldırım explained that this request was not over sharing users’ data with the government, but rather about cooperation in the event of a crime such as child porn or racism possibly being committed.

“We cannot ask for such a thing [data]. Turkey is a state of law,” he said regarding claims that the state was requesting data to be shared by social media companies.

Facebook previously denied having agreed to share data regarding postings on the Gezi Park protests with the Turkish government, as had previously been stated by Yıldırım.

'National security’

Minister Yıldırım also said Turkey had the right to take the necessary measures in the event of a cyber security threat targeting the country's electricity, finance, transportation, or infrastructure.

“There is only one way to ban the Internet, and that is to shut it off: But we are not one of those countries,” he said.

Last week, Yıldırım warned that companies which do not cooperate with the government over cyber crimes would receive an “Ottoman slap” in response.