RT: #Duranadam: ‘Standing man’ protest goes viral as Turkey eyes law to restrict social media

The Turkish government is working on a draft law to restrict social media in a bid to crack down on activists. Meanwhile, a new form of protest is sweeping Turkey, taking Twitter by storm under the hashtag ‘standing man.’

Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler said on Monday that the government was drafting a law to restrict social media content. Guler said the measures were being discussed in response to the influx of “provocative material” that has appeared on social media. The new law will grant the government powers to investigate and prosecute individuals who publish offending material.

The Turkish state department has already begun to examine around 5 million tweets about the Gezi Park protests, Turkish news outlet Hurriyet reported.

The minister claims that some of the material published by activists is false and is being manipulated to incite further protests. He previously posted on his Twitter feed a photo used by the protesters showing a man with several plastic bullet wounds on his chest with the accompanying caption, “Fascist dictator’s police did this to a protester with plastic bullets.”

Read more: http://rt.com/news/social-media-law-turkey-870/