President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan might discuss the potential censorship of his tweets by Twitter’s former management with the social media platform’s current CEO Elon Musk.
Musk recently exposed the former Twitter management for its political censorship and suppression of information on key matters and critical elections by revealing documents detailing how the social media giant manipulated feeds, boosted U.S. Democrats, and restricted former President Donald Trump’s presence.
On whether such censorship occurred against Türkiye's president, “I could have a talk with him, or at least a phone call,” Erdoğan told reporters aboard the presidential plane while on his way home from a summit in Turkmenistan on Wednesday evening.
“Just as we discussed the space business, we can talk about this, too,” Erdoğan mused, referring to Tesla and SpaceX founder’s help in the launch of Türkiye’s communications satellite Turksat 5A last year, for which Erdoğan thanked Musk with a non-fungible token (NFT) of satellite art created by children.
The Turkish leader said his office “closely follows” issues that came to the fore regarding the previous Twitter administration's interventions in the political arena.
“But, I've already said I don't have a particularly positive view of social media. It's not to social media that we owe our success in politics or diplomacy," Erdogan remarked.
“The field of the contest for politics is not social media. Politics is done directly with the people, for the people. If one has a genuine connection with their people, neither Twitter nor any other power can hold you back,” the president said.
Erdoğan previously expressed he may negotiate with Musk to avoid paying the monthly $8 fee for the “verified” badge on the platform after the billionaire bought the company in late October and declared he would start charging for the blue check, a mark that confirms the account as belonging to the person or company using it.
