Twitter failed to pay fine to Turkey, measures to be taken against site: Minister

ANKARA

AFP Photo

Turkey will take measures after Twitter failed to pay a 150,000-Turkish Lira fine demanded by the authorities, Transportation, Communications and Maritime Affairs Minister Binali Yıldırım stated on Jan. 6. 

Turkey’s communications technologies authority, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), fined the micro blogging site Twitter 150,000 liras ($50,000) for not removing content that it says is “terrorist propaganda,” a BTK official told Reuters on Dec. 11. 

This was the first time that the Turkish government has ever fined the popular site, though it had temporarily banned Twitter several times after it failed to comply with requests to remove content.

“The due-time for the payment of this fine expired yesterday [Jan. 5]. But we stand behind our decision and we’ll now take whatever measures are necessary,” Yıldırım said in a press meeting in Ankara. 

Contrary to some prior moves by Ankara, he added that it is “out of the question” to close down social media platforms, stressing that the government “just wants them to act in line with the law.” 

In the first half of 2015, 72 percent of total Twitter content removal requests were made by Turkey, far higher than second-placed Russia, which accounted for 7 percent of removal requests.