Twitter website 'banned' by court order in Turkey

[Anthea]

BBC News Europe

Twitter users in Turkey report that the social media site has been blocked in the country.

Some users trying to open the twitter.com website are apparently being redirected to a statement by Turkey's telecommunications regulator.

It cites a court order to apply "protection measures" on the website.

This comes after PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to "wipe out Twitter" following damaging allegations of corruption in his inner circle.

The BBC's James Reynolds in Istanbul reports that he is unable to access Twitter.

"I don't care what the international community says at all. Everyone will see the power of the Turkish Republic," Mr Erdogan said earlier on Thursday.

He spoke after some users had posted documents reportedly showing evidence of corruption relating to the prime minister - a claim he denies.

His office said that Twitter had not responded to Turkey's court rulings to remove some links, forcing Ankara to act.

Twitter has so far made no public comment on the issue.

There are about 10m Twitter users across Turkey.

In 2010, the country lifted its ban on YouTube - two years after it blocked access to the website because of videos deemed insulting to the country's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26677134

[Anthea]

Twitter May Have Exposed Government Corruption, So Turkey Is Banning Twitter

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to have made good on his vow to wipe out Twitter in his country, as Turkish tweeters are reporting that they are unable to access the service.

Audio recordings that appear to be of Erdogan involved in government corruption were posted on Twitter by an anonymous account, just weeks before local elections in the country. Erdogan has denied that the recordings are legitimate but apparently decided it was better to be safe than sorry and just get rid of Twitter altogether.

"We will wipe out Twitter. I don't care what the international community says," Erdogan said today. "They will see the Turkish republic's strength."

Erdogan has previously called social media a "menace to society" and threatened to ban YouTube and Facebook. Last year, at least 25 people were arrested for tweeting messages of protests against Erdogan and his government.

The Turkish government later issued a statement saying that Twitter refused to remove tweets that were harming its citizens, so, "as long as Twitter fails to change its attitude of ignoring court rulings and not doing what is necessary according to the law, technically, there might be no remedy but to block access in order to relief our citizens."

Twitter is looking into the ban now. In the meantime, it has posted instructions on how Turkish users can still tweet using SMS.

http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/03/t ... er/359400/

[Anthea]

ANKARA–Twitter went dark in Turkey late Thursday, just hours after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to “wipe out” the social network — one of several highlighting corruption allegations in his inner circle.

Twitter’s public policy team responded by saying on its official @policy feed that Turks could get around the block by tweeting through mobile telephone text services.

Opposition media outlets said the block was implemented by Erdogan’s government, after the prime minister told a rally he would eradicate Twitter access in the country.

The state-run Anatolia news agency said authorities “technically blocked access to Twitter” because the service had ignored various Turkish court orders to remove some links.

The website for the country’s telecommunications authority (TIB) turned up four separate court rulings referencing “twitter.com” that suggested official action had been taken.

One of them says: “The protection measure has been taken for this website (twitter.com) according to the decision… of the Istanbul chief public prosecutor’s office and has been implemented by the TIB.”

In Thursday’s rally to drum up voter support ahead of March 30 local elections, Erdogan had told supporters: “We will wipe out Twitter. I don’t care what the international community says.”

Erdogan’s office said in a statement that Twitter remained “indifferent” to Turkish court rulings demanding “some links” be removed and that the premier was turning his attention to the matter.

The state-run Anatolia news agency said the only solution to “address the unjust treatment of our citizens” deemed in violation of Turkish law was to employ technical measures to block access to Twitter.

In a first reaction, the EU commissioner for digital agenda, Neelie Kroes, tweeted that the bank in Turkey “is groundless, pointless, cowardly”.

She added that the “Turkish people and international community will see this as censorship. It is.”

Erdogan, Turkey’s charismatic and increasingly autocratic leader since 2003, has come under mounting pressure since audio recordings spread across social media that appeared to put him at the heart of a major corruption scandal.

[Anthea]

What many Twitter users in Turkey get when they try to log in:

[Anthea]

[Anthea]

[Piling]

Fine results. Twitter should thank Erdoğan

[Piling]

[Anthea]

[Anthea]

[Ozgur]

Erdogan is getting more and more desperate as he goes down. And he is going down fast.

[Anthea]

Erdogan is getting more and more desperate as he goes down. And he is going down fast.

Bye Bye Erdogan

[Anthea]

Ozgur do you think that he will try to ban other sites?

He could even block Google

[Ozgur]

He can't ban any any shit. People still access twitter. Turkey is currently the no1 trend topic in twitter, also with the number of logins we broke all time records. This whole thing has really backfired on Erdogan big time.

Btw something really big is expected to come out on the 25th. Some say it will be a sex scandal video of Erdogan.

You godda love living in Turkey, you'll never have so much fun in any other country.

[Anthea]

He can't ban any any shit. People still access twitter. Turkey is currently the no1 trend topic in twitter, also with the number of logins we broke all time records. This whole thing has really backfired on Erdogan big time.

Btw something really big is expected to come out on the 25th. Some say it will be a sex scandal video of Erdogan.

You godda love living in Turkey, you'll never have so much fun in any other country.