

Twitter blocks two accounts on its Turkish network - jevinskie
https://news.yahoo.com/twitter-blocks-two-accounts-turkish-network-164247186.html;_ylt=AwrBJSCWAFRT8woA0dbQtDMD

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sukruh
>Twitter's global policy team said it withholds content only "after due
process", such as after having received a court order, and in a tweet said it
would not do so "at the mere request of a gov't official".

This is disappointing. Legal standards on free speech are hopelessly
inadequate in Turkey, as can be seen from the existence of court orders
banning the whole of Youtube. If Twitter obeys whenever a Turkish court orders
removal of content or banning of accounts, it will be assisting in censorship
- plain and simple.

As for the specific cases of the two accounts that were withheld: The real
content of the leaks are on Youtube, and these two accounts were used to
'announce' the leaks to the public, presumably by the leakers themselves.
These accounts were retweeted by tens of thousands of people, so if the
contents of these two accounts' tweets were illegal, so were those retweets.
Will they ban the retweeters too? I don't think so, and this means Twitter's
actions will contradict with each other.

The leaks were important in showing the corruption at the top of the
government and should not be censored, whatever Turkish courts decide. Tax
avoidance, invasion of personal privacy, etc. all seem to be excuses by the
government, created to lull their supporters.

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fsniper
And now thank you Twitter. We have just lost our information stream. Our
"legal goverment" is so corrupt that nobody cares legal documents, do not
process prosecutions but you idiots bow to Turkish government.

Again thank you. Because I respect the HN community I won't swear here.

But feel what I am denying myself to say.

~~~
archivator
It's either that or Twitter will be completely blocked in Turkey. They're
playing a tough game but at least it's a game that the Turkish public can play
too, as long as you're faster than the censors.

The alternative is for the government to take down the entire game field.

~~~
fsniper
They have blocked twitter before, Youtube is even blocked right now. But
knowing twitter is starting to bow Turkish government’s requests is not
assuring anyone.

It's blocking accounts right now. But what may come afterwards is really
worrisome. Also Starting with Turkish government will mean other governments
will start the same tactics against Twitter.

So any non-Turkish citizen should fear about what is about to come.

~~~
afsina
Or, they just did the expected. Those accounts were unlawful and there were
court orders against them. You or I may disagree with it does not matter.

~~~
fsniper
Like any whistle-blowing.It's illegal so no one should whistle-blow and any
corruption should stay hidden.

~~~
dobbsbob
These accounts will just switch to Russian social media or blogs.mail.ru which
have Turkish language support and would be happy to host corruption docs of
the Erdogan regime. Then use twitter to spread links to it.

Nothing twitter can do if thousands of Turkish twitter users are linking to
pastebin entries and other moving targets hosting links where to get these
docs.

~~~
fsniper
We have seen haramzadeler switch accounts from @haramzadereler1 to
@haramzadeler333 and many numbers in between beforehand. So they will just
switch accounts hence it's a matter of time before twitter bows and creates a
special api for AKP government just to deny any account they want.

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ilyanep
Why accept orders from Turkey and not e.g. Egypt, Iran, etc.?

~~~
mrtksn
This was the argument of the Turkish government all the time. Why accept
requests from Germany, France, UK, USA but not Turkey?

~~~
fsniper
Also their argument is Twitter does not pay Turkey taxes?

I, International community, Twitter, Turkish Government (or it equals Tayyip
Erdoğan) all know what is at stake. It's never about the law or the taxes.
It's just about shutting down whistle-blowers or political rivals.

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kmfrk
I was wondering what the hell their recent tweets referred to:
[https://twitter.com/policy](https://twitter.com/policy).

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xvilka
Just get rid of Twitter and try Twister instead.

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yawz
Very very disappointing.

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aerodog
Haramzadeler does not mean "sons of thieves". It means "sons of bitches." AFP,
so prudish.

~~~
diorray
It actually means "The Sinner Family". You're AK it, dont you?

~~~
diorray
It actually means "Sons of Sinners".

"Haram" means sin and "zade" is the "mac-" prefix You're AK it, dont you?

