Politicians slam Facebook for censorship of Yeni Şafak

Prominent Turkish politicians, including ministers and members of parliament, strongly reacted against Facebook's “unacceptable" censorship of the Turkish daily Yeni Şafak.

The world's largest social media platform, well-known for advocating freedom of expression, removed the most popular Turkish newspaper's pages from its platform.

Last week, Facebook shut down the Istanbul-based daily newspaper's Turkish, Arabic and Sports pages without giving a reason. The pages, which were run through a global account, had more than 10 million followers around the world.

Facebook's decision drew strongly reacted in Turkey. The action was widely protested by Turkish online and traditional media.

“The unlawful block of the most popular Turkish newspaper pages without any judicial decision is clearly a strike against freedom of the press … In regarding the freedom of the press the decision is completely unacceptable," said Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ.

He strongly opposed the decision, underlining that the social media platform shut down a page that ran according to the norms of democracy and human rights while not taking any action against pages that have been conducting propaganda for terrorism. “Facebook ignored many judicial orders to block terrorist-affiliated pages, but it closed the pages that promote democracy, freedom of expression and human rights and oppose terrorism. This is a completely inadmissible situation," he added.

Health Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu also slammed Facebook for its scandalous decision. “If the social media network claims to serve all the people in the world and especially in Turkey without any distinction among them, it should reverse this mistake immediately," he said.

Another politician, Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya, deputy chair of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party also strongly opposed the decision.

“This is an injustice not only against Yeni Şafak but also against its 10 million followers. First of all, Facebook should rectify the mistake that it made against its own users," she said.

She hopes that Facebook will end this arbitrary treatment very soon.

Faruk Özlü, the head of the parliamentary Defense Committee, described the decision as a block against Turkish society's right to acquire information. “We express our full support for the Yeni Şafak family," Özlü said calling on Facebook to reopen Yeni Şafak's pages.

Moreover, Sema Kırcı, AK Party Deputy from Balıkesir province, AK Party's Ankara Deputy Ahmet Göndoğdu, AK Party's Ordu Deputy Metin Gündoğdu, Global Legal Consulting lawyer Şükran Çiftel and the Informatics Board Member of Ankara Bar Association Nİhat Karslı also condemned Facebook for censoring Yeni Şafak and called on the social network to correct its mistake as early as possible.