Turkish court lifts Twitter ban

10 years ago | Posted in: Technology | 1007 Views

Turkish Twitter users are expected to regain access to the microblogging platform after a local court issued a stay of execution on last week’s decision by a local telecommunications authority to ban the website.

According to some local media reports, the ban will be lifted as soon as the administrative court in Ankara informs Turkey‘s Telecommunications Authority of the ruling.

In a first official remark, deputy prime minister Bülent Arinç said the Turkish government would implement the court ruling. “We will implement the court’s decision. We might not like the court decision, but we will carry it out,” he told reporters.

The microblogging site was blocked on Friday, only hours after Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, vowed to “eradicate” Twitter in an election speech. The website has been used to disseminate a series of apparently incriminating audio recordings suggesting massive corruption inside the Turkish government.

The disruption, implemented only days before crucial local elections, sparked national and international outrage. EU officials, human rights organisations, the US government and the UN all expressed grave concern about Turkey’s attempt to curb freedom of expression and the increasing authoritarian stance of the Turkish government.

Several complaints were filed contesting the ban, and Turkish bar associations harshly criticised the block as unlawful and unconstitutional.

Twitter on Wednesday said it had handed in petitions for lawsuits challenging the ban, while also starting to suspend content in compliance with Turkish court orders. According to the Turkish daily Hürriyet, the account @oyyokhirsize (“no vote for the thief”) was not accessible anymore from Turkey. In a statement on the company’s official blog, general counsel Vijaya Gadde confirmed Twitter had, for the first time in Turkey, used a tool to block access to an account accusing a former minister of corruption while it contested a court order to take it down…. see more

source: the Guardian UK

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