Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel’s close personal associate on Wednesday denied that she has any links to a spate of closures of social media accounts and deletions of posts linked to journalists and news outlets in Cyprus.

Instead, she told news website Bugun Kibris that claims she had been linked to the closures constituted an “organised lynching operation” against her.

“I am not behind these attacks; that is clear. I do not know such a company, I have not made such an attempt, and I have not used any intermediaries,” she said, in reference to reports that the content had been taken down following initiatives taken through Aiplex Software Private Ltd, a technology company based in India.

She said that she is “the easiest target” for rumours to start, and that “they threw me to the wolves in such a way that it was portrayed as if all the irregularities and illegal activities were committed by me”.

To this end, she suggested that it could have been actors within the media who organised the closures of accounts and deletions of posts.

“I claim that someone from within your own ranks could be behind this. It could be a structure which wants to gain power and thus targets other media outlets,” she said, before adding that she had enlisted the help of a “hacker friend” to get to the bottom of the issue.

Additionally, she insisted that deleting the content, a not inconsiderable proportion of which was related to her, allegations that her degree certificate was forged, and her association with Ustel, would not benefit her.

“They have already brought me to the point they wanted in the public eye. The judicial process has begun. What will it change if I remove them?” she asked.

Multiple news outlets and journalists have had their social media accounts locked and posts taken down since the weekend, with Turkish Cypriot telecommunications department chairman Tayfun Aydinli saying that the posts and pages had been taken down “within the social media platforms’ operational processes”.

At present, it appears that individuals and organisations have employed bots to mass report content as copyright infringement, triggering social media platforms to automatically hide content and lock accounts as a precaution.

Outlets impacted included the social media accounts of newspaper Yeniduzen and news websites Kibris Postasi, Haber Kibris, Kibris Genc TV, Bugun Kibris, and My Kibris Haber, while political chat show host Mustafa Alkan, social media journalist Serdinc Maypa also had social media posts deleted.

Meanwhile, high-profile politicians, including former Turkish Cypriot chief negotiator for the Cyprus problem Kudret Ozersay, opposition political party CTP member Devrim Barcin, and Yasemin Ozturk, of ruling coalition party the UBP, also had social media posts removed.

Yeniduzen reported that content using keywords such as “Juju” – Unal’s nickname – as well as “cyber-attack”, and words related to the ongoing strikes and protests in the north have been targeted.

On Monday, the Cyprus Turkish journalists’ association condemned the removal of journalistic content from social media. Within hours, this post, too, was deleted after being mass reported.