A new Turkish application to compete with Whatsapp and fears of censorship

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Turkey launched a local text messaging application to compete with Facebook and Whatsapp applications, sparking fears among critics of the government of using the new application to tighten censorship and promote a security crackdown it launched 18 months ago.

Turkey launched the application (PTT Messenger) in reference to the first letters of the General Authority for Post and Telegrams (PTT).

A limited version of the work has been launched in recent days in government institutions and some private companies. It is expected to be available to all within 6 months.

"The host server for the new application does not store any data, and it will be impossible to access any of them," government spokesman Bakr Bouzdaj told a news conference.

Some question the impossibility of retrieving data from the new application and fear that it will give the authorities greater control over the opposition, citing the massive security crackdown launched after a failed military coup in July 2016.

There are also concerns that application loading will eventually become mandatory for enterprise devices and personal staff devices.

A survey by December 2016 indicates that an estimated 40 percent of Turkey's population is heavily using Watsab, according to Statista.