Erdogan’s ‘Twitter army’
Recep Tayyip Erdogan once said that “Twitter is a lot of trouble, as are other social media. They are the biggest nuisance to society because they misinform people”.
Now, however, it seems he wants to be in total control of the online space and this is why he has created an “army” of 6000 people that “bombard” Twitter on a daily basis with thousands of messages in favor of Turkey’s governing party, AKP, and Erdogan himself.
According to a report in Taraf newspaper, the AKP already pays the 6000 people whose main job is to send positive messages on Twitter and deny any negative information about the Turkish prime minister or the government.
The Turkish newspaper reveals that AKP wants to continue this practice ahead of the local election but is struggling to find funds to do so. For this reason, the newspaper says “AKP members are establishing an advertising firm which will handle all the state media packages and in return for its huge profits, will pay the 6000 Turks that send positive messages about the AKP on Twitter”.
Local elections are set to go ahead in the spring.
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(Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Photo: European Commission)
