Twitter files lawsuit against Turkish fine over "terrorist propaganda"

ISTANBUL: Micro-blogging site Twitter filed a lawsuit in an Ankara court on Thursday, seeking to annul a fine by the Turkish authorities for not removing content Turkey says is "terrorist propaganda", a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.



The legal challenge argued that the 150,000 lira ($50,000) fine was against the law, the source said. Turkey temporarily banned the site several times in the past after it failed to comply with requests to remove content.

Twitter was not immediately available for comment.

Turkey’s communications regulator had imposed an unprecedented fine on Twitter for allowing the publication of content deemed to justify terror, the state-run Anatolia news agency said Friday.

The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) has fined Twitter 150,000 lira ($50,700), the first time it has issued such a penalty to the company.



Despite repeated warnings, Twitter failed to withdraw content “praising terrorism, targeting the security forces and inciting hatred and violence”, it said.

There were no further details on the nature of the offending content but Turkish officials have repeatedly expressed irritation over the presence of material on social media in favour of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).