ISTANBUL (AP) — Twitter has announced it will establish a legal entity in Turkey in order to continue operating in the country, which passed a controversial social media law last year. The decision comes after Turkey slapped advertising bans on Twitter, Periscope and Pinterest in January. The advertisement bans were the next step in a series of measures to force social media companies to maintain legal representatives in Turkey to manage content complaints. Human rights and media freedom groups say the law amounts to censorship and violates rights to privacy and access to information. Turkey’s legal demands for content removal make up 31 percent of global requests, according to Twitter. The country has made some 45,800 demands and Twitter says it complied with about a third.
