Twitter Blocked in Turkey as Prime Minister Vows ‘Eradication’

Twitter Blocked in Turkey as Prime Minister Vows ‘Eradication’

Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has embed a nation wide blockade on twitter.com. Twitter.com is now inaccessible by anyone in the Turkish region.

The popular social media platform, Twitter, has been censored nationwide throughout Turkey. Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, vowed to “eradicate” or block the service at a public rally.

” ‘We now have a court order. We’ll eradicate Twitter. I don’t care what the international community says. Everyone will witness the power of the Turkish Republic,’ Erdoğan said at his campaign rally in the western city of Bursa on March 20, 10 days before the upcoming local elections.” Daily News reported.

Hours after the rally, just before Midnight on Friday, Turkey did indeed place a global blockade on Twitter. The Turkish Prime Minister threatened blocking access to Twitter days before. Erdoğan has also threatened to block access to Facebook, and YouTube. He claimed he won’t let Turkish people be sacrificed to the social media outlets. As “those people [the social media services] incite any kind of immorality or espionage for the profit of these institutions”.

The Press Advisory of the Prime Ministry later clarified Erdoğan’s statement, arguing that Twitter officials currently “ignore” some court rulings in Turkey, which order the social media platform to “remove some links” as per the complaints filed by Turkish citizens, Hurriyet reported. Prime Minister also stated in his speech, he will not lift the ban if Twitter continues to operate how they do currently. Twitter failed to remove links of leaked files directed towards Erdoğan.

As of March 20, 2014 Twitter is fully blocked in Turkey. Twitter users worldwide are tweeting with hashtag #TwitterisblockedinTurkey.

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