Officials from the government of Turkey have threatened to once again block Twitter in the country unless the social media company agrees to block the account of the BirGun newspaper, a left-wing publication that released documents detailing a planned raid by military police on Turkish Intelligence Agency trucks traveling to Syria in January last year.
The demand by Turkish authorities was made on Jan. 15, the day after a local court located in Adana, a province in southern Turkey, released an order to ban all coverage of the ongoing investigation.
The issued order hinted at the possibility that there will be an overall ban to be placed upon social media websites wherein the documents on the legal proceedings regarding the raid have been released.
According to the court, the release of the information was in violation of the country's national security laws, and caused interference to the ongoing inquiry.
Officials of the government of Turkey have vehemently denied claims by the opposition that the trucks of the Turkish Intelligence Agency were carrying weapons to be given to extremists that were locked in a fierce battle with the regime of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. The officials claimed that the trucks were instead delivering humanitarian relief for the Turkish minority that we reliving in Syria, as they had been caught between the conflict since 2011.
Social media networks Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter followed the court order immediately, deleting the sensitive content found within accounts to avert shutdowns. However, the BirGun newspaper, along with several users on Twitter, challenged the ordered ban through the posting of new messages concerning the issue.
Twitter did not agree to block BirGun's account. However, the social network removed certain messages posted by BirGun that showed images of the leaked documents wherein military police supposedly confirmed that the Turkish Intelligence Agency trucks indeed contained explosive and weapons. The documents also reported revealed that the trucks were headed to be delivered to Al Qaeda.
"Out of the almost 60,000 tweets on the account, Twitter withheld access in Turkey to the small number of tweets that discussed the national security issue referenced in the order," said Twitter spokesman Nu Wexler, adding that the social network is continuing to work diligently for the protection of the rights of its users and for the preservation of the access of millions of users of the social network in the country.
Twitter, along with YouTube, was previously blocked within Turkey in March last year after government plans detailing secret military operations in Syria were leaked to the websites.
Twitter was brought back online in Turkey two weeks after it was blocked.
