Via Hurriyet:
Turkey has blocked access to Twitter, hours after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed to close down the social media platform.
“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.
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.
Graffitti helping folks to get around the ban even made it onto buildings:
Mockery was quick and scathing as the ban rather than being effective sparked scorn and more usage.
Prompting Twitter birds to tweet Mr. Erdogan’s head not so kindly:
Son kez sesleniyorum bu kuşları bulun özür dilettirin yoksa adam dünyaya bizi rezil edecek pic.twitter.com/gsARpZmOAL
— Engin Kara (@ekara571) March 21, 2014
Drawing a comparison to Obama and his slogan “Yes, we can”:
Yes, we ban. #RTE #Erdogan @IndexCensorship pic.twitter.com/P0lOtWkSO5
— Serdar Dalgıç (@serdaroncode) February 8, 2014
More on the ban here.