ANKARA
Turkey's President said Friday the country's new internet law does not involve a ban on social media such as Facebook and YouTube.
"There can be no talk of banning platforms, such as Youtube and Facebook, which operate across the globe," Abdullah Gul told journalists in Istanbul.
He stressed that problematic portions of the law had been amended after he drew attention to them.
Turkish parliament passed the omnibus internet bill into law on February 26 after its revision in accordance with the ruling AK Party’s amendment package.
The law’s amended sections require that a decision to block a website be sent to the relevant court within 24 hours, after which the court must issue a ruling within the next 48 hours.
If the court annuls the decision, the blockage will be lifted.
However, Gul added Friday that online acts involving crimes or damage to private lives would be banned through court verdicts.
"Whatever constitutes a crime in the real world is a crime in the virtual world," the president said.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted in a televised interview Thursday that Turkey could ban Facebook and YouTube amid threats that visual and audio recordings could be released around the March elections.
Turkey blames the "parallel state" for the recent flurry of online wiretap leaks. The "parallel state" controversy erupted in Turkey after the government accused a ring led by the powerful U.S.-based Turkish preacher, Fethullah Gulen, of forming a parallel structure within the state and of plotting to topple the government.
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