Month: December 2024

A court in the southern Turkish province of Adana blocked access to Roblox, one of the most popular online gaming platforms in the world, citing dangers to children. “Due to content that could lead to child abuse, access to the game platform called Roblox and its links in app markets has been blocked by the Adana 6th Criminal Court of Peace,” Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on Wednesday.

Tunc added that Turkey will continue to take measures to “to ensure the protection of our children according to our Constitution”.

Roblox is a gaming platform that allows its users to create and publish their own games. The platform is also an online meeting hub for its users, often teenagers.According to Euronews Turkish, Turkey has the fifth highest number of people in the world using Roblox.

The access block follows similar decisions imposed by the government in the past month. The popular global story-sharing platform Wattpad has been banned in Turkey “for the protection of children” and “public order” since July 16, making it the first country to impose such a restriction.

Most recently, Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority, BTK, the national communications regulator, blocked access to Instagram on August 2 without stating the reason or duration of the ban.

The ban came after the presidency’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, accused Instagram, which is owned by META, of censorship of content about Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination in Iran, linked to Israel. “This is censorship, pure and simple,” Altun said on X, adding that Instagram had not cited any policy violations for its action.

Turkey later announced that Instagram had been blocked over its failure to remove illegal content on matters such as “the sexual abuse of a child”, for insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, and over items on “gambling and drugs”. Officials said Instagram had been warned to remove such content but it failed.

Turkey has passed a number of draconian laws and regulations that give the government greater control on digital platforms.

It has previously blocked many social media platforms, including YouTube, Threads, EksiSozluk, Wikipedia, Twitter and TikTok. It has also imposed social media and broadcasting bans following disasters, terror attacks and social unrest.

Turkey’s Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Abdulkadir Uraloglu, said Instagram had not met conditions to lift the access block imposed on August 2. “We did not get exactly the result we wanted, we are following up and actively discussing.” Uraloglu said on Monday.

Media outlet Haber Global said Turkey had put a list of demands to Instagram in a meeting.

“The delegation headed by Uraloglu emphasised that messages of support for the [Kurdish militant groups] PKK, PYD and FETÖ [Ankara’s name for exiled Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen’s network], which are on Turkey’s list of terrorist organisations, should also be blocked by algorithms,” it wrote.

Reportedly, the Turkish side also “criticised the algorithms blocking messages of condolence published by Turkish officials for Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh”, following his recent assassination in Iran, which has been linked to Israel.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meanwhile accused Instagram and other social media platforms of “digital fascism” for allegedly blocking criticism of Israel. “They consider even a simple sentence criticising Israel as an insult. We are facing digital fascism,” Erdogan said on Monday.

Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority, BTK, the national communications regulatory agency, blocked access to Instagram on August 2 without stating the reason or duration of the ban.

The ban came after the presidency’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, accused Instagram, which is owned by META, of censorship of content about Haniyeh’s assassination, calling him a “martyr”. “This is censorship, pure and simple,” Altun said on X, adding that Instagram had not cited any policy violations for its action.

Turkey later announced that Instagram had been blocked over its failure to remove illegal content on matters such as “the sexual abuse of a child”, for insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, and over items on “gambling and drugs”. Officials said Instagram had been warned to remove such content but it failed.

Turkey has passed draconian laws and regulations that give the government greater control on digital platforms.

Under Erdogan, it has previously blocked many social media platforms, including YouTube, Threads, EksiSozluk, Wikipedia, Twitter and TikTok. It has also imposed social media and broadcasting bans following disasters, terror attacks and social unrest.

Users in Turkey cannot currently access Instagram via web and mobile applications but access is still possible via VPN services.

“Millions of people are being deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends, and business are no longer able to reach their customers,” a META spokesperson said on Monday adding that META is doing everything to restore Instagram in Turkey.

According to the Istanbul Planning Agency, IPA, the municipal statistical agency, Turkey’s recent decision to block Instagram could lead to daily economic losses of about 1.9 billion Turkish liras or some 52.1 million euro.

A woman holds a flag during a protest against the results of the presidential elections in Caracas,Venezuela, 29 July 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE/Henry Chirinos

North Macedonia says it has not received any evidence that hackers from the country were involved in meddling in Venezuela’s hotly disputed election.

Digital Society Minister Stefan Andonovski on Tuesday said that, apart from Venezuelan allegations, the “authoritarian regime” in Caracas had not produced any proof. “We are carefully monitoring the process,” Andonovski said.

“The ministry is not an investigative body but we will make sure that no one is accused in our country without having adequate evidence for it, and that we are not involved in internal political battles between an authoritarian regime that has existed for years in that country and the opposition there,” Andonovski added.

After presidential elections on Sunday, which the regime in Venezuela claimed to win, its Chief Prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, said on Monday that an inquiry had been launched against opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and several of her associates for alleged involvement in a hacking attack against the National Electoral Council’s data transmission system.

“The hacker attack came from North Macedonia,” Saab added, without showing any evidence, adding that this attack, allegedly coordinated by Venezuelan opposition leaders, had “the intention of manipulating data that was being received by the National Electoral Council.”

North Macedonia’s Foreign Ministry and interior Ministry have not reacted to the claims.

However, a former high-ranking Foreign Ministry official told BIRN on Tuesday under condition of anonymity that, “knowing the source of these allegations, I would not be surprised if our country is just being used by the Venezuelan authorities as convenient alibi for what is happening there.”

Apart from Cuba and Russia, most countries have greeted the official results of the Venezuelan election with scepticism, mainly because the authorities did not allow independent election observers.

According to the official results, President Nicolas Maduro won 51.2 per cent of the vote against the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia’s 44.2 per cent.

The opposition has disputed the results, accusing Maduro of fraud. Machado said they had evidence that their candidate won 70 per cent of the votes, not 44 per cent.

On Tuesday, protests and violent clashes erupted in many Venezuelan towns and cities. Meanwhile, neighboring Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic and Uruguay expressed serious doubt about the transparency of the election process and requested an urgent meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States, OAS, to safeguard “the will of the people”.

In response, Saab, a close ally to Maduro, downplayed these concerns as “attempts at interference and reckless statements made by a few Latin American governments.”

The EU and US also expressed strong doubt about the election results. The EU’s High Representative, Josep Borrell, on Monday said the results “have not been verified and cannot be considered as representative of the will of the people of Venezuela until all the official records from polling stations are published and verified.” He called on the Venezuelan Electoral Council to “exercise maximum transparency.”

North Macedonia is better known as a target of hackers, rather than an exporter. However, in 2016, spammers from the little North Macedonian town of Veles gained cash and notoriety for promoting fake news about Donald Trump on social networks.

Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority, BTK, the national communications regulatory agency, blocked access to Instagram on Friday without stating the reason or duration of the ban.

“Instagram has been blocked by a decision dated 02.08.2024,” the BTK wrote on its website without giving further information.

The ban has come after the Turkish presidency’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, on Wednesday accused Instagram, which is owned by Meta, of censorship of content about Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination in Iran calling him a “martyr”.

“This is censorship, pure and simple,” Altun said on X, adding that Instagram had not cited any policy violations for its action.

However, there is no certainty that Instagram has been blocked over content removal on Haniyeh’s death, which led President Erdogan to declare a day of mourning on Friday.

The independent media platform Medyascope reported on Friday that Instagram had been blocked over its failure to remove illegal content on matters such as “the sexual abuse of a child”, “Insulting [Mustafa Kemal] Ataturk [founder of Turkey],” and items on “gambling and drugs”.

A BTK official anonymously told Medyascope that it had warned the social content provider to remove such content.

“There are certain periods of time [given] for this. If it [the offending material] is not resolved within this period, we have the right to block access,” the BTK official was quoted as saying.

Turkey has passed draconian laws and regulations that give the government greater control on digital platforms.

Under Erdogan, Turkey has previously blocked many social media platforms, including YouTube, Threads, EksiSozluk, Wikipedia, Twitter and TikTok. It has also imposed social media and broadcasting bans following disasters, terror attacks and social unrest.

Users in Turkey cannot access Instagram via web and mobile applications since the ban was imposed on Friday morning. Access is still possible via VPN services.

Devin Nunes, Chris Pavlovski and Howard Lutnick met North Macedonia’s PM, Hristijan Mickoski on Monday in Skopje. Photo: North Macedonia’s Government 

North Macedonia’s new conservative Prime Minister, Hristijan Mickoski, said after meeting some of US Republican contender Donald Trump’s close business associates that his government is interested in cooperation with them.

“If we manage to find common interests, why not?” Mickoski told local TV station Telma on Monday, when asked about whether cooperation and possible investments are in sight.

Earlier that day in Skopje he met Chris Pavlovski, CEO of Rumble corporation, Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald finance corporation and Devin Nunes, former California congressman and current CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group.

“For now, I would not reveal this type of details [of cooperation] but I am pleased I had these people today. They will stay here for the next few days and will talk to government teams, divided into two sections. The first is the economic part, and the second is the digitalization and the digital transformation,” Mickoski said.

The meeting, according to an earlier press release, focused on opportunities for cooperation on digital reforms that the country needs to implement to improve services to the citizens, “focusing on digital freedom and transformation of Macedonian society”.

Several opportunities for economic cooperation in various sectors were also discussed, the government press release added.

Mickoski, who came to power after May general elections, said the visit was organised by Chris Pavlovski, a Canadian technology entrepreneur of Macedonian descent. His bio notes extensive experience in online marketing and advertising space. His company, Rumble, is also known for hosting Truth Social, a right-wing social media platform popular among Trump supporters.

“We create technologies that are immune to cancel culture,” the company states on its website, adding: “Join us. We are on a mission to protect a free and open internet.”

Mickoski’s VMRO DPMNE party was formerly headed by the now fugitive exPM Nikola Gruevski who ruled the country for a decade from 2006 to 2016. His government tightened its grip on the local media, among other things by pouring in millions iinto favoured media through government advertisements.

Photo illustration: Kanchanara on Unsplash

Social media users in North Macedonia are being targeted by fake articles impersonating legitimate websites, in an attempt to lure them into a cryptocurrency trading scheme. BIRN’s own Reporting Democracy is among the websites being impersonated by the scammers.

Police in North Macedonia had already issued a warning for users to be careful of such suspicious content, saying such schemes impersonating legitimate websites and displaying clickbait content have been active for at least the past two weeks.

In the case of BIRN’s Reporting Democracy, the targeted users are being encouraged to click on a fake website through a paid ad on Facebook. The fake website is using the same logo and branding as the original site, and contains a made-up interview with the famous Macedonian football player, Goran Pandev.

The catchy headline reads: “The Central Bank of Macedonia Sues Goran Pandev for His Statements on Live Television”.

The fake content then relates how Reporting Democracy was able to obtain a now-deleted live video interview with the football star, in which Pandev, not knowing that he is being recorded, slips out about how he got rich fast by trading cryptocurrency.

The fake article soon starts promoting crypto-trading sites that allegedly made the football player rich and led to the central bank going after him.

Through these fake web pages, users are directed to three alleged platforms for cryptocurrency trading: Nearest Edge, Bitapp24 and Immediate codex.

After opening the website with the alleged trading platform, users are directed to a login that requires the entry of personal data such as name, email and phone number, after which users receive information that “the order” has been placed.

Immediately after that, the sites ask for data from the user’s bank card and the user is asked to buy crypto-currency, with a note written in a smaller font notifying them that they accept the risk of trading.

Other websites and popular entertainment sites in North Macedonia have also been recently impersonated by the same scheme.

North Macedonia’s Police department for computer crime last week issued a warning to internet users, saying this scam has been going on for at least the past two weeks in North Macedonia.

However, the police said this is part of a wider scheme targeting European audiences, and that the content of these sponsored ads is simply being adjusted for local country audiences by misappropriating the names of local celebrities and following a similar pattern.

“These posts most often say ‘deleted interviews because the central bank doesn’t want you to know this secret’, mentioning celebrities from the country, even posting their photos to gain legitimacy. They note that you can acquire cryptocurrencies fast, and that all you need to do is visit the offered URL,” the police said in a statement.

“This link leads to a cryptocurrency trading platform, but there are no official details regarding the registration of the company, no information on jurisdiction, or how to get in touch with the legal entity to which you would entrust your money,” the police said.

An LGBTI+ rights activist and member of the Workers’ Party of Turkey, TIP, Iris Mozalar, was arrested on Thursday over her social media posts condemning violent incidents against refugees in past weeks.

“While those who burned the homes of small children and wanted to carry out massacres were released, I was arrested because I criticized this,” Mozalar told Yesil Gazete before she was arrested on court orders for “inciting hatred and animosity among the public”.

In her social media posts, Mozalar opposed recent attacks on refugees and defended everyone’s right to live “happily and equally”.

Turkey has seen violent anti-migrant and anti-refugee protests in recent weeks following an alleged child abuse case in Kayseri province that involved Syrian refugees. Angry protesters raided shops owned by Syrian refugees and set fire to several vehicles in the city.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the violence as “vandalism”.

Turkey’s new generation left-wing TIP and LGBTI+ groups condemned the arrest of Mozalar. “Our comrade Iris has been arrested by the court for standing up against the attacks on refugees. We will continue our struggle until peace and brotherhood prevail in our country instead of hate and hostility,”.TIP’s LGBTI+ Bureau said in a written statement on Thursday.

The Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week Committee also demanded Mozalar’s immediate release.

“Our friend Mozalar was detained from her home last night over a tweet, held overnight, and brought before a judge this morning with a request for arrest. Freedom of expression cannot be suppressed. We demand her immediate release,”it said in a statement on Thursday.

The Socialists’ Women’s Assemblies said that Mozalar was not the one inciting hatred and animosity among the public. “It is not our solidarity that leads ‘the people to hatred and hostility’ but the male-dominated hate policies towards refugees,” they said on X on Thursday.

LGBTI+ groups and TIP plan a protest on Friday evening in Istanbul near Sureyya Opera House against Mozalar’s arrest.