‘CNN U R Dead’: Photo Caption Spurs Turkey Twitter Hate #stoplyingCNN

An article published by CNN has provoked a massive Twitter backlash from Turkey’s pro-government supporters. After a photo on CNN’s website (featured above) showing a large pro-government rally was captioned with the title “Anti-government protests in Turkey,” an accusatory hashtag coming from the protest-torn country has become a worldwide trend: #stoplyingCNN. This oversight has sparked both an anti-CNN and pro-government Twitter storm.

The hashtag has been made popular by supporters of Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, the man leader who has become the center of recent dissidence after a brutal police crackdown on a peaceful protest spiraled into a historic antigovernment movement.

Supporters of the controversial Prime Minister whose increasingly conservative and Islamic reforms heavily polarized Turkey’s population, have taken to Twitter to defend their leader and denounce CNN’s reporting inside Turkey as biased. The CNN article which spurred the Twitter storm  has since been taking down.

According to tweets, CNN has covered the conflict while biased towards the side of the opposition and have failed to show “the violent side” of protesters. Meanwhile, pro-government supporters have sent out various messages, images and videos in support to the police, calling protestors “provocateurs” in the conflict. While anti-government movements have made a significant mark on Twitter with trending topics such as #OccupyGezi and #StandingMan raising awareness to their cause,  this marks the first trending topic impulsed by those who support the Prime Minister and his government. It looks like CNN has unintentionally and yet successfully unified Erdogan’s supporters under one hashtag: