Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the combative prime minister of Turkey, has called Twitter “the worst menace to society,” and he seems intent on intimidating its users.
After the government blocked Twitter in Turkey for two weeks recently, the company’s executives met this week with officials in Mr. Erdogan’s administration to discuss its various demands. The government has been railing against the company and other Internet platforms like YouTube because some Turks have used them to post leaks from a corruption investigation that has implicated prominent political figures, including Mr. Erdogan, and their families. Two weeks ago, Turkey’s highest court ordered the government to unblock Twitter.
Separately, Twitter has agreed to prevent some posts from being seen in Turkey, though they remain viewable in the rest of the world. The government also wants the company to open an office in Turkey, pay taxes on advertising revenue and reveal the identities of people publishing the leaks.
The company has not said whether it would turn over information about users to the Turkish authorities. In the past, it has refused to reveal user data in some cases; in other circumstances, it has given up the information when ordered to do so by a court. According to the company’s semiannual transparency report, it received 1,410 requests for account information from various governments worldwide in the last six months of 2013. The company produced at least some user information in 50 percent of those cases. It received fewer than 10 requests from Turkey and 833 requests from the United States.
If the Turkish government tries to compel Twitter to reveal the users’ identities, the company should certainly strongly resist what is clearly a politically motivated action. Complying with such demands would aid Mr. Erdogan’s administration in its persecution of critics and political opponents. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that Turkey is the “world’s top press jailer” and imprisoned 40 journalists as of Dec. 1. Most have been held on terrorism or other anti-state charges, which are often used to silence and punish dissidents.
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