Twitter has reportedly filed a lawsuit against the Turkish government disputing a $50,000 fine that it was ordered to pay for an account deemed to be spreading “terrorist propaganda” on its site.
Although not revealing its source, Reuters has attributed this development to someone “familiar with the matter.”
It’s unclear who the disputed account relates to, but Turkey has experienced five years of continued decline in press freedom, according to global watchdog Freedom House, thanks in part to new media laws enacted to control the Web.
Turkey was the top country named in Twitter’s latest transparency report from the first half of last year for making requests for removal of content.
The 💜 of EU tech
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
These totaled some 718 requests of the 1,003 made by governments across the world, of which 408 were made by court order, with the rest coming from public bodies.
Twitter complied with 34 percent of these but also ended up reinstating eight accounts, plus 20 banned Tweets, after filing objections in the Turkish courts.
By comparison, the United States saw no court orders made for removal of content during this time, with just nine requests from public bodies.
The US is, however, the top requester for information on those behind different Twitter accounts, making 2,436 of the 4,363 requests made in the first half of 2015. Here Turkey made just 412 requests.
Twitter declined to provide comment for this article.
➤ Twitter files lawsuit against Turkish fine over ‘terrorist propaganda’: source [Reuters]
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.