Turkey, Twitter meet in Istanbul with representative office on agenda
Senior officials from Twitter held a third meeting with the representatives from Turkeyâs information technologies authority in Istanbul on Monday to discuss a number of issues, including opening a Twitter office in Turkey.
Tayfun Acarer, the head of the Turkish Information and Communications Technologies Authority (BTK), met with Sinead McSweeney, Twitterâs director of public policy of Europe, Middle East and Africa, for the third time this year on Aug. 25.
The prospects of Twitter opening an office in Turkey, as well as taxation concerns, were reportedly among the issues discussed.
Twitterâs vice president and global public policy head, Colin Crowell, who was expected to lead the Twitter delegation, did not attend the meeting.
Twitter currrently does not have an office in Turkey, despite Turkish authoritiesâ requests for it to open a local branch.
In April, Crowell met with representatives from Turkeyâs information technologies authority to discuss the possibility of opening an office in the country.
Twitterâs management also met with representatives from the Turkish regulator in Dublin in May.
Turkey and Twitter have been on unfriendly terms after local courts demanded the removal of a number of web links, on the grounds that they violated privacy. The popular microblogging site has still yet to adhere to these rulings.
The countryâs telecoms regulator, TÄ°B, blocked access to the site in March, hours after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄan vowed to âwipe outâ the social media platform in a campaign speech. It was restored in April after the Constitutional Court ruled that the measure violated freedom of expression.
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