Turkish PM: "To Me, Social Media Is the Worst Menace To Society."

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Turkish PM: "To Me, Social Media Is the Worst Menace To Society."

Posted by timothy on Sunday June 2, 2013 @08:06AM from the with-enemies-like-that dept.

PolygamousRanchKid writes "Turkey's prime minister on Sunday rejected claims that he is a 'dictator,' dismissing protesters as an extremist fringe even as thousands returned to the landmark Istanbul square that has become the site of the fiercest anti-government outburst in years. With Turkish media otherwise giving scant reports about the protests, many turned to social media outlets for information on the unrest. 'There is now a menace which is called Twitter,' Erdogan said. 'The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society.' 'The people are finally standing up, speaking up and fighting for their rights,' said Hakan Tas, a deputy for the Left Party in Berlin's local assembly, who took part in the protest."

14 of 418 comments (clear)

Dictator hating free speech, news at 11. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-06-02 08:20 · Score: 5, Insightful

Dictators don't like free speech for many reasons. Someone else would do a better job of listing them than me.
1. Re:Dictator hating free speech, news at 11. by Luckyo · 2013-06-02 10:04 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  He's not a dictator in any sense. A majority of Turks are very clearly supportive of him. There is very little doubt about this.
  The issue here is the conflict between the urban and rural folks in Turkey. Rural areas are not really developed, thickly populated and essentially exist in conditions that modern urban dweller would find atrocious, similar to those found in early 1900s. But to them, that is normal existence and all they know. Also to them islam is the way of life, like christianity was a way of life to farmers of late early 1900s in USA. These people will vote for islamic parties and they are in a clear majority in Turkey. As a result, every attempt to institute democracy in Turkey led to rise of islamist movements. Western dogma has for long been suppression of democratic movement in order to prevent this through installation of various dictators.
  Essentially Turkey is going through the same thing that Arab Spring nations went through, but instead of requiring a military/rebellious deposition of installed leaders, they succeeded in stripping power from the guardian of secular society (army) via democratic legislative process after a few tries.
  The people protesting are the urban minority who learned to enjoy the pleasures of secular Turkey that doesn't exist outside large cities. Ergodan is representing his constituents in his actions, as a democratic leader should.
  That is the reality of democracy: it's the image of the people. If most voting people of the nation are rural farmers that live in a strict religious society, then democracy will eventually evolve into society that favors them over everyone else unless certain safeguards are in place to prevent this. Because in its core, democracy is nothing but dictatorship of majority.
  And in Turkey, majority is currently clearly calling the shots and wants secular elements of society that it views as degenerate removed.
2. Re:Dictator hating free speech, news at 11. by JaredOfEuropa · 2013-06-02 10:28 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Bear in mind what Erdogan himself had to say about the democratic process: "Democracy is like a bus, you ride it until you reach your destination, then you get off". He wouldn't be the first dictator to be elected by popular vote, then use whatever means that lie to hand to stay in power. He has already made the first moves: go after the opposition, jail dangerous opponents (in Turkey, this means army generals who have a strong tradition of keeping the nation secular), and bring the press under even tighter control.
  
  Not all Islamic nations are dictatorships, but most of them are. And almost all of them are distinctly unpleasant places to live if you happen to be a non-Muslim or a woman with liberal ideas. By the way, Turkey is not a Muslim country, not all of it. You'll see more headscarves and burkas in London or Amsterdam than some of the large cities in Turkey.
  
  --
  If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
3. Re:Dictator hating free speech, news at 11. by seyyah · 2013-06-02 10:32 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  He's not a dictator in any sense. A majority of Turks are very clearly supportive of him. There is very little doubt about this.
  Very true. Most protestors don't want to admit it, but it is the case (or at least was the case at election time).
  
  The issue here is the conflict between the urban and rural folks in Turkey. Rural areas are not really developed, thickly populated and essentially exist in conditions that modern urban dweller would find atrocious, similar to those found in early 1900s.
  This is not entirely correct. A large base of AK Parti support comes from a new weathly ubran elite that has been nurtured by the current government at the expense of both the traditional secular elites and the traditional leftist opposition, who both despise Erdogan. But the AKP has pushed their agenda too far and their crackdown on the media has been pretty atrocious. But they were especially foolish in misjudgoing what the reaction there would be to this particular instance of deploying the always violent police against peaceful protestors. If nothing else, one can hope that all this will result in the police being brought in line since they currently act with impunity.
4. Re:Dictator hating free speech, news at 11. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-06-02 13:51 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  He's not a dictator in any sense. A majority of Turks are very clearly supportive of him. There is very little doubt about this.
  The issue here is the conflict between the urban and rural folks in Turkey. Rural areas are not really developed, thickly populated and essentially exist in conditions that modern urban dweller would find atrocious, similar to those found in early 1900s. But to them, that is normal existence and all they know. Also to them islam is the way of life, like christianity was a way of life to farmers of late early 1900s in USA. These people will vote for islamic parties and they are in a clear majority in Turkey. As a result, every attempt to institute democracy in Turkey led to rise of islamist movements. Western dogma has for long been suppression of democratic movement in order to prevent this through installation of various dictators.
  Essentially Turkey is going through the same thing that Arab Spring nations went through, but instead of requiring a military/rebellious deposition of installed leaders, they succeeded in stripping power from the guardian of secular society (army) via democratic legislative process after a few tries.
  The people protesting are the urban minority who learned to enjoy the pleasures of secular Turkey that doesn't exist outside large cities. Ergodan is representing his constituents in his actions, as a democratic leader should.
  That is the reality of democracy: it's the image of the people. If most voting people of the nation are rural farmers that live in a strict religious society, then democracy will eventually evolve into society that favors them over everyone else unless certain safeguards are in place to prevent this. Because in its core, democracy is nothing but dictatorship of majority.
  And in Turkey, majority is currently clearly calling the shots and wants secular elements of society that it views as degenerate removed.
  First of all, I am Turkish and I have been living abroad for longer than 10+ years. What I am telling you here is probably not even mentioned in the Western media which is just as crooked as the Turkish media is right now. You have no knowledge of the facts and what you are saying does not even make sense.
  RTE not a dictator "in any sense"? Give me a break. This is a ruthless dictator who had so many reporters, university professors and high command of the Turkish Army/Air Force/Navy arrested and jailed with frivolous lawsuits all the while telling people that he "would be the prosecutor of these lawsuits" (in his own words).
  To give you an idea, more than 50% of the Navy high command is in jail. There's about 100+ reporters in jail and the professors in jail are too numerous to name one by one. Two of the accused (one was the editor in chief of a major newspaper and the other one was a professor of medicine) were elected as Members of the Parliament (for whom there is immunity with the exception of murder) and despite that they are still in jail after 5 years with no proven guilt whatsoever. The prosecution is asking for a lifetime sentence for almost all the accused and all they can present as evidence is a bunch of fake CDs with totally inconsistent bizarre documents (already proven to be fake) allegedly proving that there was a plot to overthrow the ruling government and these folks were the masterminds of it. To top it all of, they were given a mere two hours to defend themselves for the final "closing arguments". Think about it: someone is asking you to be thrown to jail for life and all you've got is a mere two hours for your defense!
  Just search for "Ergenekon" and/or "Balyoz" on Google and you will see what I mean. Before becoming the mayor of Istanbul (which was a long time ago), RTE and his family was just another low to middle class family and now he is richer than the Queen of England. Of course, that must all be by the sweat of his brow ;). How else would that be possible? Before being elected a member of the parliament, there were s
5. Re: Dictator hating free speech, news at 11. by Fished · 2013-06-02 23:33 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Dude, I could drive a bus through the factual errors in your post. By the fifth century, the Roman Empire had no trace of democracy, it was a brutal dictatorship. Nor did kings have any real restraint in medieval Europe. Not did Islam have its origins in the late Roman Empire - Byzantine, MAYBE, but by the seventh century their control if Arabia was sketchy at best. Nor was Byzantium remotely democratic.
  That dog won't hunt, and it's amazing to me that people are actually agreeing with you!
  Sources: phd in New Testament and early Christianity, university of Virginia.
  
  --
  "He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
If only he'd said "Facebook" ... by Daniel+Dvorkin · 2013-06-02 08:30 · Score: 5, Funny

... he'd have had support from a substantial portion of the Slashdot readership.

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The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Every society... by Eirenarch · 2013-06-02 08:39 · Score: 5, Interesting

Every society that can be destroyed by social media should be.
Twitter a menace? by Anarchduke · 2013-06-02 08:43 · Score: 5, Funny

Ha, wait till he visits 4chan

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who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain
Re:To me... by Somebody+Is+Using+My · 2013-06-02 08:45 · Score: 5, Insightful

He's just saying aloud what a lot of world leaders are thinking.
The internet has created a revolution in information dispersment. No longer do the the Powers That Be have a lock on the news. Even before the Internet, of course, people could bypass the regime's total control of the media (e.g., Soviet samizdats) but even then distribution issues limited how widely alternate views could be spread. Now, thanks to the Internet, it is cheap and easy for anyone to post information onto the internet, and even easier for other people to read it. This isn't without its own problems - both in the flood of available knowledge and the lack of fact-checking - but on the whole it has radically challenged how regimes control what their populace knows and thinks. And this frightens them incredibly.
Ergodan is just voicing what many other rulers - be they third-world dictators or first-world politicians - believe in their hearts. If they had their way, they'd roll things back to the 1980s, before the Internet revolution threw everything into flux.
Dark days coming for modern Turkish people.. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-06-02 08:56 · Score: 5, Interesting

Last week, at a metro station in capital city of Turkey, a couple who we were hugging and kissing, warned by officers. Next day, about 50 people protested it, one of them injured with a knife by an extreme islamist.
Today in the same speech with his comments about twitter, to a question about this incident, he replied as "yes, i support officer; people must obey moral rules!"
Re:American News Outlets... by houghi · 2013-06-02 09:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

As extra information: going from designated Good Guy to designated Bad Guy does not need any change or adaption from the designated Guy. It just kinda happens.

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Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Re:German guy took part in the protest? by Darkness404 · 2013-06-02 09:42 · Score: 5, Insightful

You should have the right to protest whatever regardless of your citizenship. Human rights are still human rights, this idea that we shouldn't care about and we shouldn't (peacefully!) try to do something about X has lead to some of the worst abuses in power in history. We are all humans and it is in all of our best interests that basic rights to self-expression, freedom of religion and the right of self-ownership are protected. Why should I care about sex-slavery in Africa? After all, I don't live in Africa, I'm white and I'm also male. Why should I care about what's happening in Syria? After all, I'm not Islamic and I'm not middle eastern and don't live in Syria. Heck, we can go even further, why should I care about the holocaust? I'm not Jewish, I don't live in Germany. Why should I care about the civil rights movement? I'm not black.

Rights need to be protected no matter who is violating them. The protection of human rights in Turkey is a cause that all liberty-minded individuals need to take note of and support no matter where their geographical location is, what race they are and whatever country you "legally belong to", because what happens to one human, affects us all.

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Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
What is happening... by Fuzzums · 2013-06-02 10:01 · Score: 5, Insightful

The police is reacting extremely violent in the protests against Erdogan, the Turkish prime Minister. Streets were littered with tear gas canisters. Several people have been killed or shot and who knows how many people are wounded.
In the mean time CNN Turkey is showing a documentary about penguins and also other news organisations in Turkey are ignoring the protests.
Facebook and Twitter do indeed play an important role in the protests. For instance it helps organize medical aid for wounded and communication about the severe cases that need urgent help and need to be transported to a hospital.

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Privacy is terrorism.