Twitter Faces Block Over Tweets In Turkey

Although the Istanbul seventh penal court of peace has asked Twitter to block access to the account of Twitter whistleblower Fuat Avni, who recently claimed that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son Bilal Erdogan went to Italy with a large amount of money on September 27, Twitter has refused to implement the court’s decision, a move that may lead to blocking of the online social networking service in Turkey.
Fuat Avni ,in a series of tweets on October 4 said: “In Italy, Bilal will manage accounts in Switzerland and other countries. Bilal has billions of dollars to manage.” Claiming that Bilal flew to Italy on September 27 and plans to remain there for a while, with family members possibly joining him later. Fuat Avni wrote: “They are planning to keep Bilal in Italy until the election in November. They will decide whether or not he will come back depending on the situation after the election.” The whistleblower said there is a plan in place for President Erdoğan and his family to flee a possible trial on corruption charges if necessary after Nov. 1 and that Foreign Minister, Feridun Sinirlioğlu is organising the plan. After Fuat Avni’s claims were reported by media outlets, Bilal Erdogan’s lawyer filed a complaint against Fuat Avni’s Twitter account, asking for a court to block access to it on the grounds that the tweets breach his rights. In a decision on October 6, the İstanbul seventh penal court of peace decided to demand that Twitter block access to the account in Turkey, but the popular social media website has refused to implement the court decision. However, Paragraph 4 of Article 9 of Law No. 6518 clearly states that a judge can decide to block access to an entire website if convinced that the removal of content that violates the personal rights of complainants has not been ensured by the website itself. Professor Yaman Akdeniz from Bilgi University’s law school and Associate Professor Kemal Altıparmak from Ankara University challenged the decision on Thursday, seeking its annulment. Speaking to Today’s Zaman, Akdeniz said the court has ruled that access to Twitter must be completely blocked in Turkey if the website fails to block Fuat Avni’s account.