A Turkish court ordered on Wednesday lifting the block on Twitter that was imposed last week.
Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said the government would obey the order.
"We may or may not like a court decision, but we certainly abide by it," Arinc said.
Turkey blocked access to the social networking site late Thursday after a court issued an order demanding that the website remove tweets containing certain links. Turkish officials, saying Twitter's management ignored calls to remove the tweets, had described the move as a temporary measure, not a ban.
On Tuesday, Turkey's leading legal association appealed to the courts to have the blockage lifted. On Wednesday, the 15th Administrative Court in Ankara decided by a majority vote to issue a temporary injunction ordering Turkey's official internet body to lift the block.
The text of the ruling has not been finished and it will be sent to the Presidency of Telecommunications when it is ready. According to a recently amended law regulating its authorities, the telecommunications regulator is obliged to implement the decision within 30 days.
However, it has the right to challenge the decision by appealing to the regional administrative court.
Twitter mounts legal challenge to ban in Turkey
Twitter has announced it has formally challenged its ban in Turkey as a Turkish court issued a temporary injunction to lift the block.
The micro blogging site announced on Wednesday via a blog post that it had filed lawsuits in Turkish courts to challenge the ban, and said none of the three court orders which had been used to block the site had been shown to the company before the ban was enacted.
According to Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s general counsel, two of the three court orders related to content that violated Twitter’s rules, and were taken down.
However, a third order had provoked concern within the company.
"The last order instructed us to take down an account accusing a former minister of corruption. This order causes us concern. Political speech is among the most important speech, especially when it concerns possible government corruption. That’s why today we have also petitioned the Turkish court on behalf of our users to reverse this order," wrote Gadde.
As Twitter contests the third order, it will withhold content from the account in question in Turkey, which marks the first time that it has used its "Country Withheld Content" tool in the country, according to Gadde. The content will still be visible outside of Turkey.
Gadde added that Twitter has been engaged with Turkish authorities during the ban.
Access to Twitter was restricted last Thursday.
The 15th Administrative Court in Ankara issued a temporary injunction on Wednesday ordering Turkey’s Internet body to lift the block.
Gadde welcomed the decision saying, "With positive developments today concerning judicial review of this disproportionate and illegal administrative act of access banning the whole of Twitter, we expect the government to restore access to Twitter immediately so that its citizens can continue an open online dialogue ahead of the elections to be held at the end of this week."
englishnews@aa.com.tr
