While Turkey’s currency crisis continues also on Monday, Erdogan’s regime believes to have found who is responsible for the crisis: it is social media accounts that “who shared posts to provoke the rise in the dollar exchange rate” and spreading fake news.
Shares in Europe’s major banks lost further ground on Monday, with traders citing persistent concerns over Turkey’s currency crisis as among the main reasons for the hit to the sector.
The euro zone banking equity index .SX7E was down 1.2 percent, hovering near its lowest level since late June and falling for the fourth session in a row, reuters notes.
Turkey’s lira pulled back from an overnight record low of 7.24 to the dollar on Monday after the central bank pledged to provide liquidity and cut lira and foreign currency reserve requirements for Turkish banks.
Turkish Central Banks said 10 billion TL, $6 billion and $3 billion equivalent of gold liquidity to be provided to financial system with changes.
But Erodgan’s regime believes to have found the reason behind the problems of the Turkish Lira.
It’s not the markets, it’s not investors, it’s not the diplomatic row with US … it is those evil internet users on social media. The “economy terrorists”, so to say, who threaten the country’s “economic security.”
Capital Markets Board said “all legal actions will be taken against publishing and spreading false news” about publicly traded banks and companies.
The Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul has opened on Monday an investigation into actions threatening “economic security,” while Turkey’s financial watchdog launched a separate probe into what it described as “fake news” aiming to manipulate economy.
“An investigation has been launched according to Turkish Penal Law, Banking Law, Capital Markets Board regulations and related laws into people who displayed actions that threaten economic security through manipulative stories on media and operational social media accounts as part of the economic attacks that target the Republic of Turkey, its social peace, unity and economic security by the powers behind the [2016] coup attempt,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Aug. 13, according to the state-run Anadolu News Agency.
In a separate statement, Turkey’s Interior Ministry said that “a judicial investigation has been launched into 346 social media accounts who shared posts to provoke the rise in the dollar exchange rate.”
Meanwhile, Turkey’s Financial Crime Investigation Board (MASAK) also launched a probe into what it described as “fake news” aiming to manipulate economy.
“MASAK started an investigation into people and institutions that spread fake news, such as those claiming that ‘the state will intervene to convert foreign exchange in accounts into Turkish lira’ and ‘it will fix dollar exchange rate’ by ditching floating rate policy, which is a main pillar of the free market,” Treasure and Finance Ministry Press Undersecretary Ali Berber said in a tweet also on Monday.
Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun described the rumors as “disinformation campaign” based on a statement by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who had said on Aug. 12 that “You must know that keeping this nation on its feet is not just our duty but also the duty of industrialists and merchants. Otherwise, I will be compelled to implement Plan B or Plan C.”
“This disinformation campaign is part of the economic war that has been waged against our country,” Altun said among others, according to hurriyetdailynews.
