Turkish prosecutor investigates tweets calling for help with wildfires
Ankara claims that Twitter hashtags calling for international aid with the wildfires raging through the country were "organized abroad" with "ideological motivations" in what critics say is a panicked attempt to change the narrative of Turkish helplessness to contain the crisis.
ISTANBUL — A prosecutor in Turkey has opened an investigation into social media calls for international help to fight the forest fires that have engulfed the country for more than a week.
Millions of Twitter users posted #HelpTurkey this week as unprecedented blazes spread across Turkey’s Mediterranean provinces and further inland.
The Ankara chief prosecutor’s office said in a Thursday statement that “technical examination” had revealed that “some individuals and groups are trying to create anxiety, fear and panic among the public and insult the state and government of the Republic of Turkey in an organized way through real or bot accounts.” It added that the investigation would focus on “posts found to contain criminal elements.”
The announcement came after Turkey’s broadcasting authority, RTUK, issued a warning to news channels over their coverage of the disaster on Tuesday.
