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Protesters holding a sign saying 'we resist bans' at a protest against internet restrictions in Istanbul last month. AP Photo/Emrah Gurrel

Turkey has blocked people from using Twitter after threat by PM

The social network was highlighting corruption allegations against the Prime Minister’s inner circle.

TWITTER WENT DARK in Turkey late last night, 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” because the service had ignored various Turkish court orders to remove some links deemed illegal.

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.

Courts

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.”

Anatolia ran a report saying a Twitter block was the only solution to “address the unjust treatment of our citizens”.

Graft allegations tweeted

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.

Recordings include an apparent discussion between Erdogan and his son about hiding money, as well as others in which he appears to be interfering in business deals, court cases and media coverage.

Some of the most damaging information has come from a Twitter account under the name Haramzadeler (“Sons of Thieves”), which appears to have access to a huge trove of secret documents and police wiretaps linked to the investigation.

Erdogan has dismissed most of the recordings as “vile” fakes concocted by his rivals, and threatened to ban YouTube and Facebook after crucial local elections on March 30.

“This has nothing to do with freedoms. Freedom does not mean the right to intrude on someone’s privacy, or to pass the state’s secrets to the international arena,” Erdogan said on Thursday.

Suspicions

The prime minister is openly suspicious of the Internet, and last year called Twitter a “menace” for helping organise mass anti-government protests.

A vast corruption probe launched in December saw dozens of people rounded up, including close business and political allies of the prime minister.

The Turkish strongman has accused associates of a former staunch ally — US-exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen — of being behind the graft probe that claimed the scalps of four ministers.

Gulen has denied any involvement.

Bans

Turkey recently tightened government control of the Internet and the judiciary, generating criticism from rights groups.

The country, which has more than 10 million Twitter users, has seen access to thousands of sites blocked in recent years.

YouTube was banned for two years up to 2010 because of material deemed insulting to the country’s revered founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

The Internet Publishers Association, a body representing online and media companies, said the move to block Twitter was an attempt to “destroy freedom of expression”.

“The prime minister having the power to shut down Twitter will be the confirmation of dictatorship,” it said in a statement published by local media.

- © AFP, 2014

Read: Turkish PM backtracks on his threat to ban Facebook and YouTube >

Read: Turkish parliament passes judicial reforms… despite broken bones and bloody noses >

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    Mute Darren Callaghan
    Favourite Darren Callaghan
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    Mar 21st 2014, 8:16 AM

    All he is doing is opening the eyes of the Turkish people to his egotistical attitude to freedom of speech, eventually it will lead to his downfall

    118
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    Mute Proinsias Ó Foghlú
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    Mar 21st 2014, 8:09 AM

    The man is a despot.

    105
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    Mute Brian Keelty
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    Mar 21st 2014, 9:09 AM

    They’ll not get into Europe anytime soon

    56
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    Mute Ahippo
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    Mar 21st 2014, 9:16 AM

    Erdogan does not want to. Only the old Kemalist elite and the Alevi want that now. The rest want an Islamic republic.

    33
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    Mute Ink Toner
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    Mar 21st 2014, 8:17 AM

    Now block him from joining Europe!

    102
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    Mute Glen
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    Mar 21st 2014, 8:19 AM

    Police state tyranny. People should avoid Turkey as a holiday destination in protest.

    68
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    Mute Nicky O'Donnell
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    Mar 21st 2014, 10:17 AM

    Turks are wonderfully friendly and welcoming people and its an awesome travel destination. If there is to be a regime change any time soon in Turkey, what you’re proposing certainly would not help it to happen.

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    Mute Darren Doheny
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    Mar 21st 2014, 8:25 AM

    A sign of a guilty man. Going on the attack and taking desperate measures.

    51
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    Mute Martin Healy
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    Mar 21st 2014, 8:55 AM

    Turkey slipping into the dark side. Fair Elections needed ASAP

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    Mute Begrudgy
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    Mar 21st 2014, 8:39 AM

    Signs that the man is terrified of losing power.

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    Mute Mark O'Hagan
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    Mar 21st 2014, 8:44 AM

    He has some medieval opinions on women too.
    http://bulletinoftheoppressionofwomen.com/category/countries/turkey/

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    Mute kingstown
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    Mar 21st 2014, 9:33 AM

    Welcome to the Islamic Republic of Turkey

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    Mute clyon six
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    Mar 21st 2014, 9:38 AM

    That’s Islam for you agree with us or we will chop your head off

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    Mute Emilio
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    Mar 21st 2014, 9:30 AM

    Good old democratic values right there, if you don’t like what the people/the People have to say, make sure they can’t say it.

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    Mute Vincent Bickerstaffe
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    Mar 21st 2014, 9:52 AM

    Turkeys can’t tweet…

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    Mute Jeebus xrist
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    Mar 21st 2014, 11:11 AM

    Yeah, they gobble gobble gobble.

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    Mute Thosj Carroll
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    Mar 21st 2014, 12:54 PM

    Erdogan is coward & wants power for himself. Power to non-Muslim Turkish people!

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    Mute Mindfulirish
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    Mar 21st 2014, 10:08 AM

    On the same day as FF have it on their agenda at the Ard Feis.

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    Mute Denise Cronin
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    Mar 21st 2014, 10:17 AM

    I’m guessing a VPN would work in this instance?

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    Mute Nicky O'Donnell
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    Mar 21st 2014, 10:21 AM

    Yes and No. It would work but new state laws allow the government to acquire all personal information and internet usage of end-users from ISPs. This means that as long as the communication companies cooperate, the government knows exactly who is using VPNs/proxies and where they live.

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    Mute Ricky Dineen
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    Mar 21st 2014, 10:01 AM

    Shouldn’t it be DM?

    1
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