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Turkey grapples with legality, implications of Internet ban

The Turkish government blocked access to Twitter as of midnight March 20.
Turkish Twitter error messages are seen through a Twitter logo in this photo illustration taken in Zenica, March 21, 2014. Turkey's courts have blocked access to Twitter a little over a week before elections as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan battles a corruption scandal that has seen social media awash with alleged evidence of government wrongdoing. The ban came hours after a defiant Erdogan, on the campaign trail ahead of key March 30 local elections, vowed to "wipe out" Twitter and said he did not care wha

At midnight March 20, Turkey blocked access to Twitter. The ban came just hours after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a rally in Bursa: “There is now a court order. We will root out Twitter. The international community can say this, can say that. I don’t care at all. Everyone will see how powerful the Republic of Turkey is.”

Turkey’s Telecommunications Directorate (TIB) based its decision on four separate court orders. One is out of Samsun, a Black Sea port on Turkey's northern coast. The court decided on March 4 to restrict access to the Twitter account of a woman, whose name is kept confidential. She complained that an unknown individual or individuals took control of her Twitter account and uploaded vulgar pictures, which tarnished her reputation and caused irreparable psychological damage. Speaking to the Turkish media, her lawyer Adnan Aydin stressed at no time he asked the court to implement a full Twitter ban, but just wanted it to take action to protect his client's privacy.

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