Social media continues to be a lightning rod in Turkey this morning. The Turkish government blocked Twitter and YouTube ahead of elections last month, a move that was widely unpopular.
Twitter is back and now the government wants their taxes.
Colin Crowell, Twitter’s head of global public policy, met with Turkish officials who urged the San Francisco based company to begin complying with the countries tax laws.
Senior officials reported that Twitter and Turkey had found a “common ground” after a round of positive talks with Crowell.
Tweeting returned to Turkey 10 days ago after a court ruled the ban violated Turkey’s version of free speech law. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned that decision and called for a reversal.
Erdoğan labeled Twitter a “tax-evader” in comments made on April 12th.
“Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, these are international companies,” he said.
“They’re companies established for profit. We will deal with them. They will come like every international company and comply with my country’s constitution, laws and tax rules.”
It’s tax day, so it’s worth mentioning that Twitter functions under a business model which limits the companies international tax implications.
Well played Mr. Twitter.
YouTube is still blocked in Turkey.
Turkey moved to ban access to YouTube after audio leaked on social media reportedly revealed corruption within the government.
Erdoğan called the leaks “villainous” citing national security as the reason behind the ban.
[Image Credit: kenteegardin]
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