Terror groups which are active in Turkey have lost considerable influence on social media, according to Yeni Safak journalist Ersin Celik talking to TV Net.
Celik says that terrorist groups have different means to reach their objectives. Besides committing terror attacks in Turkey they also aim to cause chaos through manipulation on Social Media.
The transcript of his appearance on TV Net:
Terrorist groups have, besides committing terror attacks, also as a goal to create chaos. On this subject they have also set up digital teams. This is not only done by PKK, DAESH, FETÖ, DHKP-C. All terrorist groups do this. International intelligence agencies also do this. This is a known issue.
We have to deal with 4 terrorist groups on social media: DAESH, PKK, DHKP-C and FETÖ. Especially the PKK was dealt a blow in operations in the past months. We all are active social media users and we can see that the PKK could not, in any way, make headlines, because their brain team, which is partially comprised of teachers, has been collapsed due to synchronised police operations in different regions with intel from cyber security. So the PKK lost its dominant position on Twitter. In the same way there were also operations against people who were making propaganda for DAESH. Interestingly enough, some of these social media users even turned out to be police-officers with links to FETÖ. FETÖ is, the fake-accounts we mentioned is related to this, making propaganda for a couple of terrorist organizations in the background. On this subject FETÖ is unreachable because they are abroad.
When i make terrorist propaganda in Turkey on social media from a fake-account, the Cyber Crimes Unit can determine my ID-information, my home adress, i am not speaking about an IP-adress, within half an hour. Look, this is very important. This is also important for people to warn their relatives and children. The general user age on social media is between 15 and 30 years old. Children between 15 and 18 can be fooled, manipulated, they can write without knowing better etc. They can write because of an urge for action. Or all kinds of results. In the past 3 months there were 1.700 social media users arrested in Turkey because of making propaganda for a terrorist organization. Another 1.200 people were released on the condition of judicial control. These were apprehended and released domestically. Information on 10.000 people was handed over to judicial institutions in relation to making terrorist propaganda. “It was a fake account, it had 3 followers, 1 thing”, this doesnt matter at all. They have a serious team at the Police Department and they are very busy. Especially after terrorist attacks they turn to accounts who want to create an atmosphere of chaos [in Turkey].
I’m going to give you information. A tweet was sent about the Minister of Interior, Suleyman Soylu, saying Suleyman Soylu was found dead inside his house. It was sent from a fake-account. I’m making this public for the first time i think. Within half an hour, the owner of the account and his workplace was traced and determined.
Host: When did this happen?
In the past 15 days. It turns out this person is an employee of a media organization. The minister of interior and the Police Department finds him this fast. This is how fast tracing and determining is nowadays.
Dünkü @tvnet yayınından. PKK’nın Twitter kadrosuna yapılan operasyonu anlattım. Fake hesapların kimliğini bulmak artık yarım saat sürmüyor.. pic.twitter.com/s1tqFGwDxQ
— Ersin Çelik (@ersinceliq) 13 januari 2017
