Turkey fines Twitter for refusing to take down content

Turkey has fined Twitter for failing to take down a piece of content, Reuters reported on Friday.

A Turkish official told the wire service that the country’s communications regulator had fined the social media platform the equivalent of $51,000 for failing to remove content it claims is associated with “terrorist propaganda.”

{mosads}A person briefed on the matter said that the dispute between Turkey and Twitter was over an account of a political protest critical of the Turkish government. It is not related to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which operates close to Turkey, according to the source.

The tussle is not the first time that Twitter has butted heads with Turkey over a request to take down a post.

In April, Twitter was briefly banned in Turkey until it agreed to take down a photo of a prosecutor being held at gunpoint by militants. A year earlier, a Turkish court ruled that it was illegal for Turkey to ban Twitter because of the role it played in spreading leaked recordings that reflected negatively on the nation’s president.

This is the first time that the site has been fined over a dispute, Reuters reported.

Turkey is leveling the charge of hosting terrorism-related content at a time when lawmakers in Washington are debating what responsibility technology companies should have for fighting against extremist groups like ISIS.

The debate has taken on new urgency after the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., that was carried out by a married couple who had been radicalized.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has revived legislation that would require social networks to report postings related to terrorism. Her Democratic colleague, Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), has said he opposes the bill because he believes it gives companies an incentive not to look for extremist content in the first place. Tech companies have also historically opposed the measure.

– This story was updated at 1:53 p.m.