Turkey slams social network companies for 'arbitrary decisions'

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party spokesman on Tuesday slammed social networking companies for "acting like public authority with arbitrary decisions".

"Social media is starting to turn into a mechanism that fights with the national will, sovereignty, and law. This would bring digital fascism and dictatorship," Ömer Çelik told reporters at AK Party headquarters in the capital Ankara.

"Social media companies have emerged as freedom channels, but they act as a public authority with subjective, arbitrary decisions," he said, referring to the recent restriction of Twitter posts of Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu and head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahceli about the protests against the appointment of Bogazici University rector.

Earlier, Soylu and Bahceli slammed the censorship by Twitter for blocking theirTurkey's ruling party slams social network companies for 'arbitrary decisions' posts.

The protests erupted in Istanbul against the recent appointment of Melih Bulu as Bogazici University's new rector, with a group of students calling for his resignation.

Demonstrations intensified when two Bogazici University students were remanded in custody by a Turkish court for displaying a painting allegedly offensive to Islamic values on university grounds.

Last Tuesday, Soylu said nearly 80 of those recently arrested amid ongoing protests are members of far-left terror groups, including the DHKP/C and TKP-ML.

Noting that Bogazici University is one of Turkey's "greatest achievements," Çelik said that focusing on the healthy functioning of educational life there should be the most important concern of everyone from now on.

He underlined that the rector of Bogazici University has been appointed "with the same method" as in other universities across the country.