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Turkey finally lifts Twitter's ban

Published

10 years ago

April 3, 2014

Turkey lifted a much-criticised block on
Twitter on Thursday, 24 hours after its highest court had overturned
the ban as a breach of the right to free speech.
Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan on March 20 shuttered access to the
social media site after it had been used to spread a torrent of
anonymous leaks implicating his inner circle in corruption.
Turkey’s NATO allies and international human rights groups strongly
criticised the ban — as well as an ongoing block of video-sharing
website YouTube — as a step backward for Turkey’s democracy.
On Wednesday Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled the Twitter ban
violated free speech and ordered the communications ministry and
telecoms authority to reverse it “with immediate effect”.
The government took 24 hours to react. First the telecoms authority
TIB removed from its website a court order on the Twitter block
and started contacting internet service providers to lift the ban.
Shortly after — as many of Turkey’s Twitter accounts came live
again — the transport and communications ministry confirmed the
move in a brief statement.
“In line with the decision made by the Constitutional Court … the
measure blocking access to the Twitter.com internet site has been
removed,” it said. “After the necessary technical arrangements, the site
will be opened to use.”
The ban had been widely circumvented by many of Turkey’s almost 12
million Twitter users, who have instead sent tweets via text message
or by adjusting their Internet settings.