Turkey court has upheld an appeal to end a blockage of Twitter which has provoked public outrage
By Rowena Caine
A court in Turkey has ordered the lifting of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan’s Twitter ban last week.
The move comes six days after the Ankara's telecommunication authority blocked
access to the social network site used to spread audio recordings and
documents implicating the Prime Minister in corruption.
The administrative court will inform the telecommunications regulator TIB
which is expected to grant access to Twitter in the coming hours, according
to local NTV television.
The ban was implemented nine days before the local elections on March 30,
after Twitter ignored four court orders to remove content about the
government corruption scandal, leaked by two anonymous users.
Turkey
restricted access hours after Mr Erdogan gave a fiery speech in which he
vowed to “root out Twitter”, claiming it said “was threatening national
security”, triggered local and international criticism.
Despite the prime minister’s efforts, locals continued to tweet via virtual
private networks (VPN) and anonymous web browser Tor. Twitter also provided
phone numbers encouraging users in Turkey to send tweets via text messages.
“Twitter has not been shutting down those accounts despite warnings.” The Turkish prime minister said, “this Twitter, this YouTube, this Facebook, they have shaken families at their root. Are we not going to take a stance against those attacking our nation?”
The US Department of State described the act of internet censorship as “21st Century book burning”.
“Twitter has not been shutting down those accounts despite warnings.” The Turkish prime minister said, “this Twitter, this YouTube, this Facebook, they have shaken families at their root. Are we not going to take a stance against those attacking our nation?”
The US Department of State described the act of internet censorship as “21st Century book burning”.
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