Twitter defends its controversial actions in Turkey election

Twitter on Monday defended its actions surrounding the presidential elections in Turkey over the weekend. 

“We were in negotiation with the Turkish Government throughout last week, who made clear to us Twitter was the only social media service not complying in full with existing court orders,” the social media platform’s Global Government Affairs (GGA) unit said in a lengthy tweet. 

“We received what we believed to be a final threat to throttle the service – after several such warnings – and so in order to keep Twitter available over the election weekend, took action on four accounts and 409 Tweets identified by court order.”

Twitter’s GGA unit also said that it communicated its concerns with the Turkish authorities about the “freedom of expression directly,” saying that it will continue to object to the matter in court. 

“Five court orders have been issued against Twitter regarding these actions and we have already objected to four of them. While one of our objections has been rejected, three of them are still under review. We are filing our objections to the fifth order tomorrow,” the GGA added in their tweet. 

“We are publishing below the court orders and the regulator’s correspondence relating to the action we took.” 

Twitter, purchased by billionaire Elon Musk last October, faced criticism over the weekend for restricting content ahead of Turkey’s presidential election; the GGA account tweeted Friday that that it had “taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey” in response to “legal process.” 

Twitter’s actions drew criticism from prominent figures such as Turkish-born NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom, who called out Musk during an appearance on “CNN This Morning.” 

“I don’t want to hear about Elon Musk talking about free speech ever again. He’s literally bowing down to a dictatorship,” Kanter said Monday. “The Turkish government called Elon to pretty much tell him to, ‘If you don’t ban a couple accounts, then we’re going to shut down the whole app in Turkey.’ And he picked business and money over his morals and principles. So, I don’t want to hear about him talking about free speech ever again. … He was wrong for that, for sure.”

Musk, who brands himself a fierce proponent of free speech, has defended Twitter’s decision to restrict content access in the country, saying in a tweet, “The choice is have Twitter throttled in its entirety or limit access to some tweets. Which one do you want?”

The election, which occurred Sunday, is headed for a runoff in two weeks. Voters will determine whether incumbent conservative President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, or his top rival, opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, will lead of the NATO-member nation.