Turkey fines Twitter for failing to delete tweets

The Turkish telecom authority, the BTK, has fined Twitter for failing to remove ‘terrorist propaganda’. It is the first time that Turkey has imposed a fine on Twitter.

The fine is 150,000 lira, about 47,000 euros, the BTK informs Reuters. This was imposed because, according to the telecoms authority, Twitter has not removed messages, despite requests to do so. These are tweets containing, in the words of the BTK, ‘terrorist propaganda that incites people to public actions of violence and hatred’. The BTK cites the Turkish law ‘on the regulation of the internet and the prevention of crime via the internet’ from 2007. It is unknown which tweets are involved.

Turkey has blocked Twitter several times in the past because the website did not remove tweets based on requests by the Turkish government. YouTube and Facebook have also been banned by Turkey more often because of similar cases. The fine was sent to Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters. The Turkish finance ministry will try to collect the fine.