Social media platforms are constantly asked to fine-tune their content to according to states censorship regulations. Short of year ago, Turkey requested Youtube to make a few adjustments but the website did not really comply with the demands. As a result, Turkey started thinking about outlawing some websites across in the entire nation. Currently, its Twitter’s turn: Turkey now tells Twitter to block opposition newspaper account. The site has been warned it will be banned by Turkey should it decide not to restrict the account of BirGun.

The daily paper’s Twitter profile is called @birgun_Gazetesi, and it has leaked records concerning a military police raid that was targeting Turkish Intelligence Agency trucks which were going to Syria last year. Most likely, the trucks were loaded with weapons that were intended to be utilized to battle the administration in Syria.  Turkey’s government was quick to dismiss the allegations.

What’s more, the authorities asserted that the items from the trucks were for helping the Turkish minority in Syria who was exposed to conflicts since 2011. A court in southern Turkey has discharged an order prohibiting media coverage on the subject matter, as it disregards and meddles in national security issues. Moreover, all media that distributed info on the story should be blocked according to the court’s recommendations.

As a reaction, Twitter deleted a percentage of the posts of that daily paper’s profile. Facebook and Google Plus did likewise, in the next days.

Twitter representative, Nu Wexler issued a public statement regarding the episode. Accordingly, out of the just about 60,000 tweets on the account, Twitter blocked the access to the scarce number of tweets that debated the national security problem mentioned in the court order. The spokesperson added that Twitter tries to live up to expectations and ensure the privileges of the platform’s users and maintain access the numerous Twitter clients in Turkey.

Nevertheless, the editors of the newspaper proceeded with tweets about the subject and disregarding all demands. Thus, the Turkish government now wants to close Twitter all throughout the country, in light of the fact that they expected the platform would completely block the BirSun Twitter account in such hostile and unresponsive circumstances.

This escalation is a striking update to all Twitter and YouTube clients who have encountered the same treatment last March when, because of comparable reasons concerning legislative and war weapons issues. Luckily, the internet pages were reopened two months after they were shut down by a Turkish court order.

Image Source: International Business Times