FaceTime app saves the day for Turkish president

ABHA: Apple’s FaceTime application saved the day for Turkey from a military coup conducted Friday night, underscoring the importance and strength of social media and modern technology, experts said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared on CNN Turk in an interview through the FaceTime app after some soldiers took control of the official Turkish TRT Channel, urging Turks to take to the streets “in defense of democracy”, and that led to the failure of the coup.
Commenting on this, Director of Information and Communications at Imam Mohammed bin Saud Islamic University Dr. Mohammed Al-Subaihi said the new media tools and social media can achieve positive results and contribute to uniting the community.
This was clearly demonstrated during the Turkish incident, where the role played by these media led to the failure of the coup.
At a time these media came under attack and were accused of being harmful to the community, the unique Turkish experience must have helped change the perception, showing them as positive elements that help raise public awareness, he said.
Al-Subaihi said the media in this case acted as a powerful tool that helped frustrate the actions of the coup plotters in Turkey and made the population aware of the developments and brought them together in defense of their country’s institutions.
The Turkish people have given the best example in their response to the appeal of elected President Erdogan, standing united to preserve Turkey’s stability and helping contain the coup plotters, said Al-Subaihi.
He said President Erdogan made proper use of technology in a time of crisis, managed to control reactions and sent his appeal to the community.
Political analyst Dr. Mohammed Al-Faidi said new technologies, including FaceTime, had a key role in forging unity and thwarting the coup in Turkey.
He said information and the media have become major factors in society, and those who seek to assume control over communities, normally try to dominate these media due to their important role in forming public opinion whose strength, in Turkey’s case, was greater than that of the military.
Al-Faidi said the positive aspect of the new technologies has been demonstrated in the message sent by Erdogan to his people, as well as in Yemen, where Yemeni youths unveiled, through these media, violations of the Houthi militia.
In this context, information security and cybercrime expert Mohammed Al-Siraie said that the “face time” program is one of Apple’s applications based on video-audio communication from person to person.
The application is supported by mobile phones, iOS-based tablets and Macintosh systems.
He said President Erdogan resorted to FaceTime to address his people after some in the Turkish army had closed down the official TV channel.
He used the program to contact CNN Turk after a block was imposed on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, he said.
New York Times correspondent Ceylan Yginsu said the move demonstrated how new technologies control major events.
When a group of Turkish army soldiers took control of the official TV channel, Erdogan used smartphone technology, he said.