On Saturday, Twitter said it had restricted access to “some content” within Turkey to ensure that the social media giant remains available ahead of the country’s election on Sunday.
“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,” Twitter Global Government Affairs wrote in a tweet, indicating that they received what they believed to be the “final threat to throttle the service.”
Twitter said they have taken action against four accounts and 409 tweets identified by a Turkish court order. Access to the censored accounts and tweets was restricted in Turkey.
“We communicated our concerns about freedom of expression directly,” Twitter added while stating they will continue to object in court against the orders.
Twitter also published the court orders which included the accounts and links to the tweets the government wanted to restrict within the country.
The four restricted accounts are actively critical of the Turkish government, one of which was of a journalist linked to the Fethullah Gulen movement, which is accused of being behind the 2016 attempted coup in Turkey and is considered a terrorist organization by the Turkish government.
On Sunday, Turkey held its presidential and parliamentary elections in which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) encountered their toughest challenge to date.
Contrary to the polls and election surveys which saw a possible shift of powers, the AKP-led People’s Alliance won the majority in the parliament, while the presidential election headed to a run-off round on May 28.
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