Turkey detains 510 people for ‘provocative’ COVID-19 posts on social media

ANKARA

The Interior Ministry announced that 10,111 social media accounts have been determined to be “sharing baseless and provocative coronavirus posts” in the last 65 days.

In a written statement, the ministry said 510 out of 1,105 suspects detected were “caught.”

On March 11, Turkey became the last major economy to report its first case of the coronavirus.

On April 7, the ministry had announced that 616 people who allegedly shared “provocative” and “baseless” social media posts had been identified and 229 of them were detained.

On March 17, the ministry said 93 people had been identified and 19 of them were taken into custody.

Since the first officially recorded case in Turkey in mid-March, the Interior Ministry has been keeping a close watch on social media outlets to prevent possible dissemination of false, inaccurate and provocative information regarding the outbreak.

The latest data have shown that the country is making progress in controlling the spread of COVID-19.

The number of daily reported cases in Turkey dropped below 1,000 in two consecutive days this week.