Turkish court rules tweets are free speech
Turkey’s country-wide Twitter ban has already been temporarily lifted on a national level, but the stay-of-execution wasn’t completely universal. One of the three court orders that prompted the original ban forced Twitter to use its Country Withheld Content tool on an account that had reportedly accused Turkey’s former prime minister of corruption, effectively blocking it from the view of Turkish users. The social media network complied with the order, but immediately petitioned the court to overturn it, arguing in favor of freedom of expression. Twitter’s legal legwork seems to have paid off — the company is now reporting that the take-down order has been rescinded , and the Country Withheld Content action on the account has been reversed.
“This is an exceptionally strong win for freedom of expression,” Twitter wrote in its official blog post. “It will be of paramount value for us in protecting Twitter’s users against other attempts at censorship in the future.”Turkey’s Prime Minister may see social media as “the worst menace to society,” but the country’s ruling on the matter is pretty clear: “No one may be forced to express their thoughts and opinion for any reason and purpose, and no one shall be censored or accused for that reason. Governmental bodies should avoid all acts and actions which restrict such freedom of the people.” Sounds like a solid ruling to us.
Filed under: Internet
Source: Twitter
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