Twitter Turkey News Update: Twitter Prohibition Violates Free Speech According To Court; Turkey Directed To Lift Ban After Court Ruling

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Twitter Turkey News Update: The U.S. State Department called on the capital of Turkey to quickly lift a ban on Twitter after Turkey's top court ruled obstructive access to the social-media website violated freedom of expression and individual rights. Turkey's block access on Twitter caused public uproar and international condemnation.

The Constitutional Court's ruling from Wednesday published by Turkey's Official Gazette on Thursday stated further heaping burden on the telecoms authorities to lift the ban.

Reuters stated that 'the Telecommunications Presidency (TIB) blocked access to Twitter on March 21 after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he would "root out" the network following a series of anonymously posted audio tapes purporting to expose corruption in his inner circle days ahead of nationwide elections.'

According to an official transcript of a press briefing on Wednesday, Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson at the U.S. State Department, said, "We think it (the ban) needs to end, and if there has been a court decision, we think it needs to be implemented quickly, as quickly as possible. Obviously we don't think YouTube should be banned either."

'Google's video-sharing website YouTube is also offline in Turkey, the TIB having blocked it one week after blocking Twitter. Legal challenges against the YouTube ban are pending,' Reuters reported.

"The bans on Twitter and YouTube now need to be lifted. I've expressed this to the minister and to the authorities," President Abdullah Gul, who has opposed the bans, said, according to Radikal newspaper on Thursday.

MSN said that 'Erdogan's critics saw the ban as the latest in a series of authoritarian measures to crush a corruption scandal that had grown into one of the biggest challenges of his 11-year rule.'

Tech-savvy Turks swiftly initiate workarounds, with Internet analysts reporting a surge in tweets since the ban was imposed, but the issue has become a tug-of-war between Erdogan's administration and the San Francisco-based microblogging site, which has also challenged the move.

Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party emerged victorious from municipal elections on Sunday which had become a referendum on his rule.

'His party kept control of the two biggest cities, the financial hub of Istanbul, and the capital, Ankara, and increased its share of the national vote. The opposition has contested some of the results, including in Ankara, which saw a close race,' quoted from Reuters.

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