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Campaign against Facebook's censorship of Kurds.
ANF (Firat News Agency) The criticism against Facebook’s increasing political censorship against opposition Facebook group pages in Turkey is growing as more and more pages have been closed by Facebook administration in recent months.
Yeni Özgür Politika and FedBir Kurdish Federation UK have launched a campaign urging Mark Zuckerberg,CEO of Facebook, to "Stop Censoring Kurdish Content on Facebook on Behalf of one of the World's Worst Human Rights Abusers,Turkey".
The organisers say the social network violates Kurdish Facebook users' right to to express their political views and organize their demands through social media.
The campaign is also supported by a number of politicians, journalists, academics and artists worldwide. The signatures collected will be conveyed to Facebook authorities following a demonstration to take place in London and a meeting with the authorities of the social network.
On the other hand, the signature campaign academics in Turkey launched against Facebook censorship is also continuing. The campaign was started after Facebook administration blocked a considerable number of group pages that were created and followed by people who believed in the transformative political power of social media over the course of Gezi Protests in Turkey. Facebook closed down many of these pages on the basis of groundless accusations such as containing pornographic and sexual contents. These pages were the key agents of social media-based political mobilization during the protest wave in Turkey in June 2013 and since then have been followed by high number of Facebook users. Among many others, these censorship policies have targeted Ötekilerin Postası (an activist group page with 138.000 followers), Peace and Democracy Party, BDP (The Kurdish Political Party with 32 members in the Parliament, with 181.000 followers), Sırrı Süreyya Önder (an opposition deputy in the Turkish Parliament, with 387.000 followers), Say No to Racism and Nationalism (Irkçılığa ve Milliyetçiliğe Dur De, an activist group page with 48.000 followers, closed in January).
Kurdish activists in Rojava (Western Kurdistan) have also reported that their pages have been deleted and the daily Kurdish newspaper Özgur Politika which is published throughout Europe have had their pages deleted.
Among the pages which were closed during the month of July are the account of the main Kurdish party, the BDP, as well as those of its members: deputies Hasip Kaplan and Ayla Akat Ata, DTK co-chair Ahmet Türk, Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir and deputy Leyla Zana.
On 15 August, Turkish paper Radikal reported that the social network Facebook closed the accounts of Kurdish parties and personalities, as well as of opponents, "as part of an agreement with the Turkish authorities".
The Turkish Minister of Communication Binali Yildirim had said in late June that "Facebook has a long harmonious collaboration" with the authorities. An approach that has not been shared by Twitter. According to the Minister, Twitter refused to cooperate.
In mid February, a Kurdish rights activist from London was also banned from Facebook for three days after he posted the "Freedom for Öcalan" advert the International Initiative "Freedom for Öcalan, Peace in Kurdistan" published in the British daily the Guardian. The appeal asked for freedom for the Kurdish leader in order to enable him to play his role in the search for a solution to the Kurdish question and the achievement of a just and lasting peace, is signed by hundreds of prominent figures.
The campaign can be reached and supported here
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