ISTANBUL : Turkey's decision to block access to Twitter for about 12 hours from Wednesday afternoon to early Thursday as people scrambled to find loved ones after devastating earthquakes has compounded public frustration at the pace of relief efforts.Opposition leaders and social media users criticised th
ISTANBUL : Turkey's decision to block access to Twitter for about 12 hours from Wednesday afternoon to early Thursday as people scrambled to find loved ones after devastating earthquakes has compounded public frustration at the pace of relief efforts.
It restored full access to Twitter early on Thursday as the quake's death toll in Turkey and neighbouring Syria shot past 17,000. "This had to be done because in some accounts there were untrue claims, slander, insults and posts with fraudulent purposes," the official told Reuters, citing efforts to steal money under the pretense of collecting aid.
"Disinformation is humanity's common enemy and a grave threat to democracy, social peace, and national security," he said on Twitter on Thursday. A Reuters investigation last summer showed how the mainstream media has become a tight chain of command of government-approved headlines, while the smaller independent and opposition media face the brunt of regulatory penalties.
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