Turkey Is Now Arresting Dozens for Using Twitter
Burhan Ozbilici/AP
At least 25 people have been arrested this week for messages of protest, perhaps centered on a few videos or one photo, that they've posted on the social network.
Freedom of speech is not high on the shifting priorities list of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. And after he chastised "every kind of lie on" Twitter — and blamed almost everything else but his government for the outbreak of violence across his country — at least 25 people have been arrested this week for messages of protest, perhaps centered on a few videos or one photo, that they've posted on the social network. " Nine of those arrested were detained in the city of Izmir. It remained unclear which comments on the microblogging site prompted the detentions," the Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported . As we explained on Tuesday night , the origin of social-media messages has been difficult to track down in the eight days of spreading resistance in Turkey, but the western coastal city of Izmir has been featured in several YouTube clips purportedly showed police delivering beatings to protesters.... (Warning: graphic.)
As the DPA notes, it's extremely unclear, given the chaos as misreporting out of the country, which pieces of social-media protest got these 25 people arrested — or if their arrests are tied to more beyond, you know, free speech.