Turkey's PM Erdogan threatens to wipe out Twitter
Erdogan vows to wipe out the social network, which has been highlighting corruption allegations against him and his inner circle
Twitter has been largely shut down in Turkey, just hours after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to “wipe out” the social network which, along with others, was highlighting corruption allegations against his inner circle.
The state-run Anatolia news agency said authorities “technically blocked access to Twitter” late Thursday because the service had ignored various Turkish court orders to remove some links deemed illegal.
Telecoms watchdog BTK said the social media platform had been blocked by the courts after complaints were made by citizens that it was breaching privacy. It said Twitter had ignored previous requests to remove content. “Because there was no other choice, access to Twitter was blocked in line with court decisions to avoid the possible future victimisation of citizens,” it said.
Twitter, mwitter! We will wipe out all of these. This has nothing to do with freedoms
Twitter responded by saying on its official policy feed that Turks could get around the block by tweeting through mobile telephone text services.
In early reaction, the EU commissioner for digital agenda, Neelie Kroes, tweeted that the block in Turkey “is groundless, pointless, cowardly”. She added that the “Turkish people and international community will see this as censorship. It is.”
The restriction of access to Twitter came after Erdogan told a rally drumming up support for March 30 local elections that he would eradicate Twitter access in the country.
“We will wipe out Twitter. I don’t care what the international community says,” he said.
Erdogan’s office said in a statement that Twitter had remained “indifferent” to Turkish court rulings demanding “some links” be removed, and that the premier therefore had turned his attention to the matter.
The website for the country’s telecommunications authority (TIB) turned up four separate court rulings referencing “twitter.com”. One of them said: “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.”