Hundreds of Verified Twitter Accounts Compromised, Post Swastikas, Pro-Erdogan Content (bloomberg.com)

From a report on Bloomberg: At least 25 verified international Twitter accounts (Editor's note: other outlets are saying the number is in hundreds) have posted content supporting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his feud with Germany and the Netherlands, with hashtags reading, in Turkish, "NaziGermany" and "NaziHolland." The accounts that were hacked include international news organizations such as the German newspaper Die Welt, Forbes Magazine, BBC North America, and Reuters Japan. It also targeted the Twitter accounts of the European Parliament, French politicians like Alain Juppe, Sprint Corp's CEO and President Marcelo Claure, among others. Gizmodo adds:It was an incredibly bad week for Dutch-Turkish relations. Turkish voters go to the polls next month on April 16th to decide whether President Erdogan should be given more powers. In the lead up to this vote, Turkish diplomats in the Netherlands had been speaking at Dutch rallies to Turkish ex-pats in support of the referendum. But Dutch officials prevented the Turkish ministers from speaking, causing a dust-up between the two countries. [...] Even where some of the tweets have been deleted, the banner image of the Turkish flag sometimes remains, like on the account for Starbucks Argentina.Twitter said in a statement, "We are aware of an issue affecting a number of account holders this morning. Our teams are working at pace and taking direct action on this issue. We quickly located the source which was limited to a third party app. We removed its permissions immediately."

Comments

The real problem

[Aethedor]

This shows the real problem. The problem with a dictator is not the dictator himself, but the amount of people allowing and even supporting him to be a dictator.

Expats?

[johannesg]

They have been living in the Netherlands for three generations already. Some were born in the Netherlands, of one or even two parents that were also born in the Netherlands. Of course they still speak Turkish, have a Turkish passport (and a Dutch one), serve in the Turkish military (and the Dutch parliament if they want to), watch Turkish TV, eat Turkish food, and go to Turkish supermarkets and Turkish mosques, where they get indoctrinated by Diyanet - the Turkish ministery of religious affairs. And if their government wishes to speak to them, but the evil white oppressors forbid that, they go out and riot throughout the conquered province in the name of Erdogan and allah.

Yet somehow we are all supposed to pretend they are also Dutch people that are perfectly well integrated into Dutch society. Now tell me why I should NOT vote Wilders (the Dutch Trump).

Re: Expats?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, this is fundamentally wrong and it's the fatal mistake that Western liberals have made and now refuse to acknowledge.

The concepts of freedom of religion and beliefs has progressively been equated to equality of religion and beliefs over the years, without anyone ever stopping to really think that statement through.

Western, Judeo-Christian culture is not "equal" - for lack of a better word - to that of Islamic culture. This is self-evident when you compare the stark differences between the Western world and the Middle East, or any of the pre-dominantly Muslim countries in Asia.

The West has seen the abolition of slavery, legal rights for citizens, elected, secular governments, equality of men and women, freedom of speech and religion. These principles have helped establish the many advances we have had in society, such as distribution of wealth, universal education, accessible healthcare and an effective legal and political system. The tangible results of these advances need not be named - just consider what you're looking at right now.

It is a sad reality that Islamic societies of the Middle East and Asia have seen either none or very little of this, with a clear, inverse correlation between "progress" and the degree of theological involvement in society. This is unlikely to be a coincidence.

I should be clear, I'm not saying these two cultures - or perhaps certain aspects of them - are incompatible in any way, just different and we need to acknowledge that difference: European/American nationalists are not "just as bad" or "the same" as Islamists in our society and it is a very dangerous mistake to try and kid yourself that they are.

The real problem is ISALM

[Chrisq]

The real problem is ISALM. That's why so many Muslims want to turn their back on Ataturk's dream of a modern, secular Turkey and make it yet another Sharia hell-hole.

Re:The real problem is ISALM

[Freischutz]

The real problem is ISALM. That's why so many Muslims want to turn their back on Ataturk's dream of a modern, secular Turkey and make it yet another Sharia hell-hole.

The problem is not Islam by it self, it's what we in the software business call rotten 'legacy code' common to all Abrahamic religions, Islam, Judaism and Christianity. They all have the same problematic common legacy of misogynism, violence, homophobia and intolerance. People talk as if Islam is all hate and Christianity is all hugs, kisses and fluffy bunny rabbits but in reality you don't have to search very long for bible passages like Deuteronomy 22:13-21 to which the bible thumpers usually respond that Christians don't follow such hateful passages in the bible and (my favourite christian snowflake argument) the hateful old testament laws are "only for Jews" (amazing how quickly the followers of the religion of hugs kisses and fluffy bunny rabbits revert to medieval antisemitism) which leads us to Matthew 5:17-18. But I think we've had enough fun with scripture. Let's address your main argument that the problem is Islam. What the hell makes you think that all Christians disregard bronze age laws about stoning or otherwise abusing and suppressing women (just to cite one example) but that all Muslims gleefully embrace such commandments instead of ignoring them like many Christians apparently do because that's what you just insinuated, i.e. that all Muslims religiously (pun not intended) follow passages in the Quaran requiring them to practice barbaric reprisals (similar to ones found in the bible) against people who break religious laws and commandments and just for your information: millions of Muslims don't do that and would, for example, not dream of stoning a woman.

Re:The real problem is ISALM

[Kiuas]

Getting rid of Islam won't solve the issue. Just look at Russia, asshats like Erdogan or Putin can use stupid peoples desire for strong leadership and simple solutions to get into power and remove and resemblance of democracy without relying on religion.

Exactly. More to the point 'getting rid of islam' is itself something that paves the way for authoritarianism. I mean, we're essentially talking about banning beliefs and an ideology. This is the definition of thought crime and pretty much the least liberal thing one could do. If this is done, if we admit that the state has the power to regulate what people are allowed to believe, then the banning of other ideologies and other thoughts can naturally follow. Both Turkey and Russia have laws in place right now which criminalize critiquing the ruling powers. Trump is talking about media as 'the opposition party' because the media dares to highlight when he's not using facts.

Wahabbism treats those who oppose it as enemies of god. Right wing demagogs replace god with the nation state and deem those in opposition to them as 'enemies of the state', or 'un-*insert national adjective*'. Two sides of the same coin.

Re:The real problem is ISALM

[Nidi62]

The real problem is ISALM. That's why so many Muslims want to turn their back on Ataturk's dream of a modern, secular Turkey and make it yet another Sharia hell-hole.

My argument is always this: Islam is roughly 600 years younger than Christianity. Look at where Christianity was 600 years ago. Inquisitions, witch hunts, regular mass killings of Jews, regular armed conflict between believers of different sects, strict and oppressive interpretations of religion and law, etc. All things that we are basically seeing now with Islam. Take Christianity of the 14th/15th Century and put it in the 20th/21st Century and you would see something that looks a lot like extremist Islam. You want to fix it, you don't try to shut down all things Islam. That just fuels the fire. Instead, you have to embrace and support the moderate elements within Islam, as they are the only ones that can bring Islam out of the dark ages and transform it into a more modern religion. Unfortunately, there are too many people on both sides who derive profit and power through the fear and hate of Islam, so it seems as if is going to take longer and longer for that to happen.

Re:The real problem is ISALM

[Beyond_GoodandEvil]

Wahabbism treats those who oppose it as enemies of god. Right wing demagogs replace god with the nation state and deem those in opposition to them as 'enemies of the state', or 'un-*insert national adjective*'. Two sides of the same coin.
You stopped short, you forgot that left wing authoritarians do the same thing only declare enemies of the people or the revolution. It is a common tactic among all authoritarians, delegitimize your enemies, whether it be by declaring them mentally unsound or just hateful bigots who opinions can be ignored or censored. That sounds familiar.

Re:The real problem is ISALM

[gtall]

Yes...and no. Muslims are generally well-disposed to Sharia as a political system while the other two are not well disposed to religion as a political system. I suspect the reason is the greater abuse in the other two in years past. Now that reformation has taken place in the sense that the Bible Thumpers are running the show (doesn't prevent them from trying, however), Islam is looking worse for wear.

The problem becomes apparent in the political systems of many Muslim countries and the tyranny of the majority in places like Malaysian and Indonesia. Islam as a political construct is old, creaking, and cannot keep up with the hopes of the younger generations. The problem for them is they have no real alternative "in their bones" so to speak. Their only exposure to political leadership is to their local mosque leaders who will be damned if they are gong to give up the delights of telling everyone else what to do.

It doesn't help that many societies in the Mid-East are tribal. That only gives political Islam a guaranteed divide and conquer strategy. With everyone fighting like that, no one notices the deal the central governments have with Islam, i.e., keep'em fighting and keep local politics local so the people do not notice our incompetence.

You forgot the Fascist+Inquisition bits...

[denzacar]

http://www.geertwilders.nl/ind...

This is what the PVV will do:

1. De-islamize the Netherlands
- Zero asylum seekers and no immigrants anymore from Islamic countries: close the borders
- Withdraw all asylum residence permits which have already been granted for specific periods, close the asylum centers
- No Islamic headscarves in public functions
- Prohibition of other Islamic expressions which violate public order
- Preventive detention of radical Muslims
- Denaturalization and expulsion of criminals with a dual nationality
- Jihadists who went to Syria will not be allow to return to the Netherlands
- Close all mosques and Islamic schools, ban the Koran
2. The Netherlands independent again. Leave the EU
3. Direct democracy: a binding referendum, power to the citizens
4. Completely abolish health care deductibles
5. Lower housing fees
6. Retirement age at 65, indexation of supplementary pensions
7. No public money for development aid, windmills, art, innovation, broadcasting, etc.
8. Rollback cuts in home care and elderly care, more hands on the bed
9. A lot of extra money for defense and police
10. Lower income taxes
11. Halving of car taxes

Banning books, closing churches, abolishing healthcare, canceling representative democracy while amassing more power, militarization + police state, no more public money for freeloaders like artists, engineers, media and "etc." - but hey... free money and cheap cars!
And according to his back of the envelope calculation - it will cost nothing.
He actually tries to balance the budget by guesstimating costs for things like "De-islamize the Netherlands" - which according to him will create 7.2 billion Euros.

Cause " Islamic headscarves in public functions" cost money. You wouldn't think it does... but you aren't thinking it through.
Cause when you let the women start wearing scarves, they're gonna keep buying scarves until their closets are bursting with scarves - and then they'll just buy more closets.
Those things are made out of silk too, you know? That shit ain't cheap.

Verified Twitter Accounts

[CastrTroy]

To me, the story seems to be that a bunch of "verified" Twitter accounts can be so easily taken over. All kinds of havoc can be created simply by posting a message to a high profile account. Imagine if somebody were to take over Donald Trump's Twitter account. I think that Twitter should require that all verified accounts undergo extra security to ensure that the accounts aren't taken over. Whether that means two factor authentication, client certificates, or some other means, they should be doing more to ensure that this kind of stuff doesn't happen. That verified checkmark should come with some extra requirement. Twitter currently recommends using two factor authentication for verified accounts, but it isn't a requirement.