{"id":86596,"date":"2013-12-03T01:17:50","date_gmt":"2013-12-02T23:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=86596"},"modified":"2014-01-08T15:36:47","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T13:36:47","slug":"istanbul-sets-off-twitter-storm-after-jailing-internet-troll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2013\/12\/03\/istanbul-sets-off-twitter-storm-after-jailing-internet-troll\/","title":{"rendered":"Istanbul sets off Twitter storm after jailing Internet \u2018troll\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cihat Akbel convicted after he launched a hashtag campaign against singer Aylin Aslim.<\/p>\n<p>Middle East Online<\/p>\n<p>Outspoken critic of the government<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-86598\" alt=\"_62906_aslimb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/62906_aslimb.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"204\" \/>ISTANBUL &#8211; An Istanbul court set off a Twitter storm Thursday after it handed a five-month suspended jail term to an Internet &#8220;troll&#8221; for threatening a popular Turkish rock singer.<\/p>\n<p>Cihat Akbel, known for his provocative tweets, was convicted after he launched a hashtag campaign against singer Aylin Aslim, saying: &#8220;We must go to her concert and throw a sickle at her head.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The court said Wednesday that Akbel had committed an &#8220;Internet crime&#8221;, in the latest judicial ruling in Turkey over social media posts.<\/p>\n<p>But Akbel denounced the sentence, which he said followed an 18-month trial, declaring on Twitter Thursday: &#8220;I didn&#8217;t mean to threaten anyone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The court decision also caused an outcry on Twitter, with hundreds tweeting in support for Akbel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Some people just go over the top. The decision is too harsh,&#8221; wrote one user, Burak Uslu.<\/p>\n<p>German-born Aslim, 35, is an alternative rock singer and an outspoken critic of the government.<\/p>\n<p>In September an Istanbul court issued a 10-month suspended jail term to world-renowned pianist Fazil Say over Twitter posts deemed religiously offensive.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan&#8217;s government has often launched attacks on social media and used the courts to silence his opponents, adding to concerns about rights in a country which has long sought to join the European Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cihat Akbel convicted after he launched a hashtag campaign against singer Aylin Aslim. Middle East Online Outspoken critic of the government ISTANBUL &#8211; An Istanbul court set off a Twitter storm Thursday after it handed a five-month suspended jail term to an Internet &#8220;troll&#8221; for threatening a popular Turkish rock singer. Cihat Akbel, known for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":86598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2939,89],"tags":[2589],"class_list":["post-86596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultureart","category-turkey","tag-twitter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}