Access block to vice minister’s Charlie Hebdo tweet in France

* Photo: Twitter

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An access block has been imposed on a tweet of Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism Dr. Serdar Çam in France.

Vice Minister Çam posted the related tweet after France-based weekly satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published a cartoon of President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on its cover page on October 27, 2020.

In response to this publication, Çam addressed a tweet to the magazine in following words: "You are bastards. You are sons of b*****s."

The Interministerial Delegation for Fight Against Racism, Anti-Semitism and Anti-LGBTI Hatred (DILCRAH) of the government filed a criminal complaint about this tweet and reported it to Twitter.

DILCRAH Chair Frederic Potier wrote on Twitter, "Hello, Twitter France and Audrey Herblin-Stoop. Does this disgusting tweet from this high Turkish dignitary comply with your terms of service? DILCRAH will appeal to justice. We will not give in to these attempts of intimidation. #alwaysCharlie"

Bonjour @TwitterFrance et @AHerblin. Ce tweet nauséabond de ce haut dignitaire turc est-il conforme à vos conditions d'utilisation ?
La @DILCRAH saisira la justice de son côté. Nous ne céderons rien à ces tentatives d'intimidation.#toujoursCharlie https://t.co/e3IyQbJrpN

— Frédéric Potier (@FPotier_Dilcrah) October 28, 2020

Making another statement about the issue, he has said, "While the trial of Charlie Hebdo attacks is still ongoing and at a time when Samuel Paty was murdered a short time ago, adding fuel to the flames by threatening the editorial team of Charlie Hebdo is obnoxious."

Potier has also added, "This situation raises question marks about the responsibility of social networks. These insults are posted on Twitter, whose own terms of use ban harassment and openly illegal behavior. I kindly and strongly call on Twitter to abide by its own terms of use."

After Frederic Potier reported the tweet to Twitter France on October 28, the tweet in question was suspended in the afternoon yesterday (October 28) on the grounds of "domestic laws." While the tweet of Çam can still be accessed in Turkey, it cannot be accessed in France. When users try to open the tweet in France, they see a warning indicating that the tweet has been suspended as per the domestic laws in France.

What happened?

Following the murder of history teacher Samuel Paty, who had shown Charlie Hebdo's caricatures of Prophet Mohammad to pupils in class about freedom of expression a few days before, the satirical magazine's cartoons of the Prophet were projected onto government buildings in France.

In a speech a few days later, President and AKP Chair Erdoğan condemned both the remarks of President of France Emmanuel Macron, who had said that "Islam was in crisis", and the projection of the cartoons to the government buildings. "What is the problem of this person called Macron with Islam and Muslims? Macron needs treatment on a mental level," Erdoğan said, adding that Macron "needed a mental check."

In response to this, France recalled its envoy in the capital city of Ankara to Paris for consultations. In a recent speech, President Erdoğan has also called on citizens "to not buy French products."

Shortly afterwards, Charlie Hebdo published a cartoon of President Erdoğan, which has been condemned by Turkey. Earlier yesterday (October 28), top state officials, including Vice President Fuat Oktay, Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın, and Ömer Çelik, the Spokesperson for the AKP, blasted the magazine.

Vice Minister of Tourism and Culture Serdar Çam also tweeted French swearwords addressed to the satirical magazine's Twitter account. "You are bastards. You are sons of b*****s," he tweeted. (HA/SD)