Turkey lifts controversial Twitter ban

Court declares prohibition violation of free speech; social media site to be restored within hours

By AFP 3 April 2014, 6:41 pm

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This file picture dated on March 26, 2014, shows a picture representing a mugshot of the Twitter bird seen on a smartphone with a Turkish flag in Istanbul. (AFP/Ozan Kose)

ANKARA — Turkey’s government lifted a controversial ban on Twitter on Thursday, a day after the country’s top court said the ban breached the right to free speech.

Telecoms authority TIB removed court orders enforcing the Twitter ban from its website, and one of its officials confirmed to AFP that “there has been work to lift the ban on Twitter,” without giving details.

The Hurriyet daily said TIB now had to inform Internet service providers of its decision, and that full access to the social media site was expected to be restored in the coming hours.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had ordered the block on March 20 in the lead-up to key local elections last Sunday, in which his party chalked up sweeping wins despite damaging leaks on Twitter and other social media claiming widespread graft.

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 US-based company reacted quickly to the ruling, tweeting: “We welcome this Constitutional Court ruling and hope to have Twitter access restored in Turkey soon.”