14 DAY TRIAL // The Turkish Constitutional Court has ruled that blocking off Twitter in the country violates free speech, as well as individual rights.
Several weeks ago, the Turkish authorities blocked Internet access to Twitter ahead of local elections after compromising footage featuring the country’s prime minister made its way online. YouTube access was also restricted.
While the official position was that Twitter refused to take down several links as per court request, Primie Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s promise to wipe out the microblogging platform shows that there’s more to the story.
Regardless, the constitutional court has now ruled that the entire blockade violates basic rights such as the one to freedom of expression. The verdict has already been sent to the TIB, the Turkish telecoms authority, as well as the Transport Ministry, which is responsible for communications.
At least in theory, the ruling should lead to an immediate lift of the block. The court reacted to several individuals who challenged the ban, including opposition leaders and Karem Altiparmak, a well-known legal academic.
He actually took to his own Twitter account and said that if anyone believed there was rule of law and human rights in Turkey, the TIB must execute the court verdict and lift the ban on the social tool.
As Altiparmak shows, many people in Turkey have taken various measures to gain access to Twitter, including by using VPN tools or changing their DNS address, for example.
In fact, immediately after the ban rolled out, people started sharing their knowledge about how to use Google DNS to circumvent the block by painting the details on buildings in Istanbul, or over election posters.
It wasn’t long before the Turkish authorities managed to implement a way to block Google DNS as well. In fact, Google confirmed that its DNS was “intercepted” in Turkey, although it did not give more details on the subject.
As mentioned above, Erdogan’s critics have started sharing information about him on social media and YouTube, especially after the corruption scandal broke out. The prime minister isn’t a big fan of those who contest his rule in the country, especially after spending over a decade in power.
Since local elections were just around the corner and his political party had a lot to lose if information about Erdogan’s corruption deeds reached too many, the fact that Twitter and YouTube got blocked isn’t that surprising. Now that the elections have passed, it’s quite possible that the ban will be lifted anyway.