Twitter executives set to meet Turkish officials

After high court ends Ankara’s block of social media site, PM Erdogan promises to ‘go after’ it for tax evasion

By AFP 13 April 2014, 8:15 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)

NEW YORK — Twitter executives will meet officials from Turkey’s government, a company spokesman said Sunday, after the country’s prime minister vowed to pursue the site for alleged tax evasion.

“I can confirm that Twitter representatives will be in Turkey to meet with government officials,” a Twitter spokesman said, without providing further details.

Reports have said a meeting between Twitter and Turkish government officials was set for Monday.

It comes after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday accused the micro-blogging site of tax evasion.

“Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are international companies established for profit and making money,” Erdogan said.

“Twitter is at the same time a tax evader. We will go after it.”

On March 20, Erdogan’s government banned access to the site over leaks on the social network implicating his inner circle in corruption claims.

The ban sparked outrage among Turkey’s NATO allies and international human rights groups who viewed it as a setback for democracy in the European Union-hopeful country.

Ankara had to lift the ban on April 3 after its highest court ruled the blockade breached the right to free speech.

The prime minister made clear he was unhappy about having to comply with the Constitutional Court, whose rulings can’t be appealed.

“We are of course bound by the Constitutional Court verdict, but I don’t have to respect it,” Erdogan defiantly told a press conference. “I don’t respect this ruling.”

Erdogan said “the Constitutional Court should have rejected” the application to lift the Twitter block brought by an opposition lawmaker and two academics.

“This is a commercial company which has a product,” he said of the San Francisco-based service. “It is not only Twitter. YouTube and Facebook are also commercial companies. It is everyone’s free will whether or not to buy their product. This has nothing to do with freedoms.”