Cyprus Mail content removed from Facebook amid ‘cyber-attacks’ on journalists

A post on the Cyprus Mail’s Facebook account was removed from social media platform Facebook on Thursday amid a wave of “cyber-attacks” on journalists and news outlets on the island in recent days.

The post featured a link to an article penned on Wednesday regarding the Turkish Cypriot ruling coalition’s efforts to alter the payment of the cost-of-living allowance to public sector workers.

The Cyprus Mail, as other outlets had been in recent days, was informed that the content had been removed by Facebook because the platform “received a notice from a third party that it infringes their copyright”.

According to Facebook, the owner of the rights to the content was a “Mr Abishek Dhoreliya”, who is listed as the “sole proprietor of Markscan”.

Markscan is based in New Delhi, the capital of India, and describes itself as “a digital asset protection and policy advisory firm”.

The removal of content published on Facebook by the Cyprus Mail comes after numerous other outlets based on the island have faced similar issues in recent days.

Outlets impacted included the social media accounts of newspaper Yeniduzen and news websites Kibris Postasi, Haber Kibris, Kibris Genc TV, Bugun Kibris, and My Kibris Haber, while political chat show host Mustafa Alkan, social media journalist Serdinc Maypa also had social media posts deleted.

Most recently, Yeniduzen’s entire Facebook page was removed from the platform on Wednesday night.

Yeniduzen had reported that content using keywords such as “Juju” – the nickname of Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel’s longtime close personal associate Fatma Unal – as well as “cyber-attack”, and words related to the ongoing strikes and protests in the north have been targeted.

This proved to be the case in this incidence, too, with the Cyprus Mail’s article having made reference to last week’s general strike in the north.

On Wednesday, journalists gathered outside Ustel’s office in protest at the content’s removal, with many believing that Ustel or Unal may be behind it.

Turkish Cypriot press workers’ trade union Basin-Sen leader Ali Kismir said at that gathering that “ths fight is not only about protecting journalists, but also about protecting freedom of expression”.

“The thing most feared is the news which journalists produce,” he said.

With journalists demonstrating, other trade union leaders took the role of ‘journalists’ at the demonstration, and electricity workers’ trade union El-Sen leader Ahmet Tugcu asked Kismir which forms of content had been removed.

Kismir replied that the content removed typically relates to “reports concerning police violence, strikes, allegations of corruption and bribery, and the trial of Fatma Unal”, who is accused of having forged her degree certificate.

He called on the north’s ruling coalition to “prevent these attacks”.

Unal denied any link to the removals, telling Bugun Kibris that “I have not made such an attempt, and I have not used any intermediaries”.

She said that she is “the easiest target” for rumours to start, and that “they threw me to the wolves in such a way that it was portrayed as if all the irregularities and illegal activities were committed by me”.

To this end, she suggested that it could have been actors within the media who organised the closures of accounts and deletions of posts.

“I claim that someone from within your own ranks could be behind this. It could be a structure which wants to gain power and thus targets other media outlets,” she said, before adding that she had enlisted the help of a “hacker friend” to get to the bottom of the issue.