Turkey threatens to block Twitter again

The Turkish authorities have demanded with a legal order that Twitter take unwelcome content from a Turkish newspaper offline. Although messages have been censored, Twitter refuses to remove the associated account. Turkey therefore threatens to block the site again.

That reports The New York Times. Turkish authorities are angry with Twitter because the site refused to comply with a request to block an account. That account belongs to a Turkish newspaper and, like other Turkish media, had published documents about an alleged arms transport from Turkey to Syria. However, the authorities claim that it was humanitarian aid and demanded through the court that the Twitter messages about the case be taken offline. Incidentally, messages may no longer appear on other social networking sites.

Most of the reports about the case have now been deleted or are no longer accessible in Turkey, but the newspaper BirGun is refusing to comply with the request to stop reporting on the case, according to the Turkish authorities. Twitter subsequently refused to comply with the request to block the newspaper’s account, sparking anger from Turkey. Authorities are now threatening to block access to the social networking site in Turkey again, according to The New York Times. Incidentally, Twitter has made the offending messages from BirGun inaccessible in Turkey, but this was not enough for the authorities.

Turkey also previously blocked access to Twitter, as well as access to YouTube. However, the blockade was bypassed en masse and then undone after the intervention of a judge. Incidentally, the same thing happened next with the YouTube block. Turkey has been under fire for some time over free speech in the country.