Ankara - Turkey’s Constitutional Court ordered the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to remove a ban on Twitter access immediately, saying it violates freedom of expression.
The top court sent its decision to the government’s telecommunications regulator, or TIB, as well as the ministry of transportation and communication, it said on its website.
The court examined the ban after complaints from people including opposition lawmaker Sezgin Tanrikulu.
Turkey placed the ban on March 20 hours after Erdogan said in an election rally that San Francisco-based Twitter Inc had ignored court orders to remove content related to a probe into alleged corruption by his government.
Links to recordings posted on Twitter put Erdogan, his close allies and relatives including his son Bilal at the centre of the investigation.
The premier has denied any wrongdoing.
“The government has no right to object to the Constitutional Court’s decision to remove the ban,” Kerem Altiparmak, one of the people who appealed the ban at the top court, said on CNN-TURK television.
“They have to implement the ban immediately.” - Bloomberg News