Turkish authorities are seeking up to 15 years in prison for the license holder of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app Ankara says was used by the group it blames for an attempted military coup in 2016, state-owned Anadolu news agency said on Wednesday.
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Ankara has cracked down on the network of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric, since the coup attempt in which some 250 people were killed. It arrested thousands of people for using or possessing Bylock, while hundreds of thousands were sacked, suspended or arrested for alleged ties to Gulen.
Ankara outlawed Bylock in the aftermath of the coup, saying Gulen's followers had used it to communicate on the night of the putsch when a group of rogue soldiers attempted to overthrow the government.