Two news websites, including Turkish Minute, founded by Turkish journalists in exile were the victims of a cyberattack on Wednesday, hindering their daily operations for news production for more than 24 hours.
The Turkish Minute and Bold Medya websites were taken down, and messages about a July 15, 2016 coup attempt in Turkey were posted with the photos of some 250 people who were killed during the abortive putsch.
The two outlets are run by journalists who had to flee Turkey in the aftermath of the failed coup to avoid a government-led crackdown on journalists who worked at media organizations affiliated with the faith-based Gülen movement.
The Gülen movement, inspired by the views of the late Turkish-Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, has been targeted by the Turkish government for a decade, with accusations of masterminding corruption investigations in 2013 and the failed coup in 2016.
The Turkish government labeled Gülen and his movement as “terrorists” in May 2016.
Gülen and his followers have strongly denied any involvement in the coup or any terrorist activities but have been the subject of a harsh crackdown for a decade, which intensified in the aftermath of the abortive putsch.
The cyberattack on the two news outlets came shortly after the death on Sunday of Gülen at a hospital in the US, where he had been living in self-imposed exile since 1999, and the blocking of dozens of X accounts of Turkish journalists and activists by the platform due to a request from the Turkish authorities on Tuesday.
On the same day, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on X that the cybercrime department of the Turkish National Police has identified and is investigating 177 social media users who have allegedly spread propaganda for “Fetö” or shared posts praising Gülen or his movement following the cleric’s death.
“Fetö” is a term coined by the Turkish government to refer to the Gülen movement as a terrorist organization.
Some of these outlets and people were journalists in exile, known for their critical reporting on the Turkish government, such as Cevheri Güven, Sevinç Özarslan, Adem Yavuz Arslan and Emre Uslu; the Bold Medya news website; journalist Amberin Zaman; former national footballer Hakan Şükür; and Kamil Güleçyüz, the editor-in-chief of the Yeni Asya newspaper.
A number of these accounts posted messages of condolence for Gülen or praise of his movement following the cleric’s death, but others did not.
Many of the journalists whose X accounts were blocked in Turkey appealed to X owner Elon Musk on the platform, criticizing him for “bowing to requests of censorship” from Turkey and questioning his dedication to freedom of expression.