Twitter To Challenge Turkish Ban through Courts

Twitter, the social media platform said in a statement on Wednesday that it had filed lawsuits in Turkish courts to challenge a ban imposed on the service  by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government last week.

Twitter said that it had suspended content related to two of three court orders which were given as the legal basis for the ban because they violated its own rules. But it was challenging a third order to remove an account accusing a former minister of corruption.

The controversial recordings in which Erdogan tells his younger son Bilal to hide vast amounts of money were posted on You Tube by an anonymous poster. It appeared within days of the ruling AK party’s official launch of a campaign for local elections on March 30. Erdogan dismissed the allegations as an attempt to destroy him by his political enemies at home and abroad and called the recordings as “fabrication”. Following the allegations of corruption, Erdogan vowed to “wipe out twitter”. The social media website is currently blocked in Turkey.

Infoeditor