Baku, Azerbaijan, March 22
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Access to Twitter in Turkey can be opened only by a court decision, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said, Anadolu agency reported March 22.
Arinc said Twitter was temporarily blocked because Turkish court asked to remove some tweets that are directed against Turkish statehood.
Access to Twitter was blocked a few hours after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a statement about such a possibility.
He said the issue of banning Youtube and Facebook may be included in the agenda if needed, in order to protect Turkish citizens from external influences.
However Turkish President Abdullah Gul made a statement about the impossibility of banning Youtube and Facebook. He also said a total ban on Twitter in Turkey can not be considered.
Microblogs on Twitter were blocked in Turkey by a court decision, Turkish media outlets said.
It was also reported that Turkey demanded of Twitter to delete the tweets that are against the Turkish statehood, however the company has not yet responded.
Two years ago over 350,000 tweets, inciting anti-Semitism in France, were removed by Twitter in line with French government's decision.
Translated by E.A.