Twitter CEO denies any impetus to Gezi events

Twitter does not have any "perspective" on the Gezi Park demonstrations, the micro-blogging website's CEO, Dick Costolo, said today with respect the postings on its social network during the month of nationwide protests Turkey.

"You can use our open public platform to say what you believe. That's what users in Turkey are doing," Costolo said during a conference at the Brookings Institute in Washington.

Hashtags related to Gezi Park protests have figured at the top of the list of worldwide trends. Turkish police have arrested dozens of protesters for their posts on the network, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an accusing Twitter of being a "troublemaker." "The finest lies are on it," he said during the first week of the protests.

Costolo said he was aware of Erdo?an's remarks about Twitter and followed closely what was happening in Turkey.

"We don't editorialize what's on [Twitter]. The platform itself doesn't have perspective on this," Costolo said.

Hours earlier, Turkish Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Binali Y?ld?r?m had said in a statement that Twitter had refused the government's offer to cooperate about the posts during the protests.

"Our friends have initiated contact [with social media executives] as is due. Some have approached [the issue] positively but unfortunately Twitter did not look positively on cooperation. This is an important development," he said, calling the social media network to open an office in Turkey as Facebook had.

However, despite Y?ld?r?m's claims to the contrary, Facebook denied having agreed to share data with the Turkish authorities in a statement.


/HurriyetDailynews.Com/