As many as 75,000 Turks have been arrested by the Turkish authorities in a crack down for using an encrypted messaging app called ByLock which has been declared illegal.
What could be the cause?
In July 2016, the Turkish government foiled a military coup that was aimed to topple President Recap Tayyip Erdogan government.
After the failed coup attempt, the Turkish government accused Muhammed Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish preacher who lives in the US for participating and leading the coup, although Gülen denied having any involvement.
The Turkish intelligence agency, Milli Istihbara Teskilati (MIT) led an investigation and discovered that the ByLock messaging app was used for communication by tens of thousands of Gülen followers to orchestrate the coup.
The Milli Istihbara Teskilati managed to crack the ByLock messaging app algorithm and decrypted over 10 million encrypted messages which led to evidence against the coup plotters and so many undercover Gülenist operatives.
According to the Guardian, about 75,000 people have been detained by the Turkish authorities in connection to the coup. Among those arrested are civil servants, Police officers, Judges, House makers, Businessmen, who are alleged to have participated in the foiled military coup.
Thomas Moore, a British computer forensics expert, disagree on the idea that the ByLock app was made to aid the coup in Turkey, hinting that the app are free of charge on the Apple Store and Google Play and therefore isn't tied to any region.
"It was downloaded over 600,000 times between April 2014 and April 2016 by users all over the world," The Guardian quoted Moore."It is, in my opinion, therefore nonsensical to suggest that its availability was restricted to a particular group of people."
The Turkish authorities believes that the ByLock communication app was created by the Fetullahist terrorist Organization (FETO) to deliver Gülen's messages among faithfuls and as well as to aid in executing the coup plot.
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