14 DAY TRIAL // Turkey is on a war path against Twitter and the social media site is trying to do whatever it can to continue to serve its users in this country. For this reason, it looks like Twitter has agreed to close some Turkish accounts as it was requested by the government, a senior Turkish official stated.
Several weeks ago, Turkey blocked access to Twitter right before the local elections took place. The ban was lifted only after the Constitutional Court intervened saying that the move was violating basic human rights freedoms.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan then said that he did not agree that the ban should be lifted, going as far as saying that he had no respect for the decision, even if the government did comply with the request.
At the time of the blocking, Turkey said that there were a bunch of links and accounts that Twitter refused to remove. The timing of the ban, combined with Erdogan’s statement that he would wipe out Twitter, made everyone believe that it was all staged – it was an excuse to cut off access to Twitter so that the government could prevent Turks from accessing the compromising content featuring senior officials that could be found on the platform.
As the government threatened to look into Twitter’s alleged tax evasion practices, the company seems to be softening. After all, if it banned the service over nothing, it could probably find something wrong with its financial details even if there were no problems.
“The two sides understood each other fully after the presentations, and a decision was made to establish a system for cooperation in the future. Some accounts will be closed,” said the official.
As far as the tax evasion accusations made by the prime minister, the official said that Twitter would not immediately establish a company in Turkey, but the necessary communication will be established via lawyers in Istanbul. In this manner, Twitter will end up paying taxes in Turkey, something that the government is after.
Even though Twitter is currently available in Turkey, YouTube remains banned, much to everyone’s displeasure. The site continues to host over 15 videos featuring government officials discussing bogus reasons that would justify a military intervention in Syria.
The government has demanded that the videos be removed, but Google is pretty resistant to such demands, especially if the materials are evidence of corruption inside the world’s governments.