Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had said he would “root out” the social media network where wiretapped recordings have been leaked, damaging the government’s reputation ahead of local elections. And indeed Twitter was blocked a few hours after the statement by the PM.
Some users trying to use Twitter were taken to a statement apparently from Turkey’s telecommunications regulator (TIB).
The statement cited four court orders as the basis for blocking the site, where some users in recent weeks have posted voice recordings and documents purportedly showing evidence of corruption among Erdoğan’s inner circle. It said that action had been taken against Twitter as a “protection measure”.
Meanwhile Twitturk, which records the statistics of Turkish Twitter users, said that over half a million tweets were posted in just 10 hours, despite the ban.
That number would mark no sharp fall from the average number of tweets posted in the country, which is around 1.8 million per day.
Erdoğan said the government undertook such measure “for the sake of its citizens”, adding: “I don’t care what the international community says. Everyone will witness the power of the Turkish Republic’s state.”
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