Twitter has complied with a request from the Turkish government to selectively censor election-related tweets:
“In response to legal process and to ensure Twitter remains available to the people of Turkey, we have taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey today.”
Journalist Matthew Yglesias responded: “The Turkish government asked Twitter to censor its opponents right before an election and @elonmusk
complied — should generate some interesting Twitter Files reporting.”
Elon shot back: “Did your brain fall out of your head, Yglesias? The choice is have Twitter throttled in its entirety or limit access to some tweets. Which one do you want?”
Ministry of Education chairperson in the Alanya region of Antalya province (Alanya Ilce Milli Egitim Muduru) Yusuf Yilmaz has asked for election results to be communicated directly to a government phone number under orders from the district governorship (kaymakamlik). The request was placed on the shoulders of public school principals employed by the Ministry of Education, since ballot boxes are placed in schools.
An anonymous citizen reporting to left-wing media channel Sozcu said: “Those who were disturbed by this request spoke out in protest, and began letting people know over social media. The district governorship retracted the request after this. They have no authority to give any such instructions… The district governor would not have been able to do this himself; he must have received orders from someone else, or from the AKP party organization. They are acting as if they serve the government, not the state.
The AKP has been trying for a while to obtain election data before the Supreme Election Council (Yuksek Secim Kurulu) announces it… This is scandalous, a major crime.”
AKP supporters came out of an election bureau to attack participants at CHP-affiliated Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu’s rally in the Pendik region of Istanbul province.
From April 1 to May 11, 2023, the main Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), which serves as the national public broadcaster and is supported directly with taxpayer money, allotted 48 hours 45 minutes to Erdogan’s campaigning efforts. Devlet Bahceli, chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) which is aligned with the AKP as part of the People’s Alliance (Cumhur Ittifaki), received 28 hours 53 minutes. Mustafa Destici, chairman of the Great Unity Party (Buyuk Birlik Partisi), a “far-right Islamist and ultranationalist party”, received 45 minutes although he is not a presidential candidate. Kemal Kilicdaroglu received 32 minutes, amounting to 1% of the time spent broadcasting Erdogan propaganda.
Minister of the Interior Suleyman Soylu gave a speech on May 5 in the Gaziosmanpasa region of Istanbul province. As his convoy pulled away from the square, one of the cars hit a 12-year-old boy. The boy is still in intensive care, and details about his condition are not being released to the press.
Devlet Bahceli declared during a speech in Antalya province: “Even if all of them — Johnny, Sam, Tony, Henkel, and Frank — tried to fuck Erdogan in the ass, they wouldn’t succeed!“ Much applause followed.
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