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| The Twitter ban threatened during Turkish elections: 'Removing content was a wrong decision |
Wikipedia's founder says Twitter's decision to block some content a day before Turkey's presidential election was wrong.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales told the BBC that his organization had spent two and a half years in court rejecting similar demands made by Turkey in the past.
He said that the technology sector must stand together in defense of free access to information.
Twitter owner Elon Musk has said that Turkey threatened to block the entire site.
Earlier in 2014, when allegations of corruption about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's administration started being shared on social media platforms, he had vowed to 'delete' the social network.
It should be noted that Wikipedia was banned in Turkey for almost three years after it refused to delete articles critical of the Turkish government.
Turkey's election will be decided in a run-off election later this month after no candidate emerged as a clear winner in voting this weekend.
In a tweet, Twitter said the Turkish government had served a court order identifying four accounts and 409 tweets and then blocked them. Twitter added that it would "continue to challenge the matter in court."
However, the removed content is still visible outside of Turkey.
But Mr. Wells said Twitter should have stood its ground.
He told me on the BBC's tech podcast TechLife: 'We've been blocked at different times in different places around the world, we've never given in to censorship and never will.'
"If governments around the world believe they can control what their political opponents say online or prevent them from speaking online to gain political advantage, they will continue to try."
He said that Twitter's actions will put pressure on other websites to comply with the demands in the future.
He added: 'I think people in the industry should really stand up and say no (to these kinds of demands) outright. Indeed, a free Internet, a free Internet, the free sharing of ideas and knowledge is extremely important.
Elon Musk has declared himself a supporter of 'freedom of expression' and has detailed his commitment to giving everyone a platform to have their say.
Twitter said it had been told by the Turkish government that it was the only social network not to comply with its court orders. The BBC has not been able to confirm the Twitter claim.
Wikipedia and Twitter obviously provide very different services. There is no such thing as a 'tell us what you think' question on Wikipedia, and according to Mr. Wells, this has greatly reduced the complexity of monitoring.