The Ankara administrative court was set to inform telecommunications regulator TIB of the decision, and access to Twitter was expected to be restored later in the day, private NTV television said. The government signalled it would abide by the judicial ruling, with Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc telling reporters in the capital that ‘if the court gave such a decision, we will implement it’.
The Twitter ban took effect on 20 March after Erdogan defiantly vowed to ‘wipe out’ the online messaging service, saying it had failed to abide by hundreds of court orders to remove content deemed illegal. The move sparked international condemnation and turned into an embarrassment for Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP)ahead of key local elections Sunday, the first polls since the graft scandal broke.
The UN high commissioner for human rights was among international figures and national leaders who condemned the ban on the US-based site as curbing free speech.
Can’t silence technology
Erdogan’s political opponents welcomed the court order. ‘It was impossible for a totalitarian regime to silence the technology,’ said Emrehan Halici, deputy head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party.
‘It was a shame to try to shut down Twitter. It has done nothing other than humiliate our country,’ he said following the court’s decision. ‘More people than before have taken to Twitter after the ban.’ Indeed many of Turkey’s 10 million Twitter users managed to circumvent the official ban, tweeting via mobile phone text services or using virtual private networks. Among those defying the ban were several cabinet members as well as President Abdullah Gul, who set himself publicly at odds with Erdogan by denouncing the move as ‘unacceptable’.
The Twitter ban took effect on 20 March after Erdogan defiantly vowed to ‘wipe out’ the online messaging service, saying it had failed to abide by hundreds of court orders to remove content deemed illegal. The move sparked international condemnation and turned into an embarrassment for Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP)ahead of key local elections Sunday, the first polls since the graft scandal broke.
The UN high commissioner for human rights was among international figures and national leaders who condemned the ban on the US-based site as curbing free speech.
Can’t silence technology
Erdogan’s political opponents welcomed the court order. ‘It was impossible for a totalitarian regime to silence the technology,’ said Emrehan Halici, deputy head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party.
‘It was a shame to try to shut down Twitter. It has done nothing other than humiliate our country,’ he said following the court’s decision. ‘More people than before have taken to Twitter after the ban.’ Indeed many of Turkey’s 10 million Twitter users managed to circumvent the official ban, tweeting via mobile phone text services or using virtual private networks. Among those defying the ban were several cabinet members as well as President Abdullah Gul, who set himself publicly at odds with Erdogan by denouncing the move as ‘unacceptable’.