Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatened to shut down Twitter and other social media platforms after a court ruling on Thursday.
Hours later, the government had shut down access to Twitter in most parts of the country.
“We’ll eradicate Twitter. I don’t care what the international community says," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said today, according to the Hurriyet Daily News. "Everyone will witness the power of the Turkish Republic.”
Erdoğan said recently that Turkey could ban Facebook and YouTube, but the move was later ruled out.
Here's what one Twitter user says showed up for him when he tried to access the site:
RT @ikoker this is what I get when I try to access #twitter from #turkey without VPN/DNS/IP change etc pic.twitter.com/vOQM19iNQ7
— Yannis Koutsomitis (@YanniKouts) March 20, 2014The message translates to: "Thisweb pagecan notbe used."
Erdoğan's threats come in the middle of a corruption scandal he's battling, which he says his enemies have orchestrated and waged via leaks on Twitter and YouTube, according to Turkish daily news site Today's Zaman.
"Twitter, mwitter!," Erdoğan said at a rally. The phrase translates roughly to "Twitter, schmitter."
According to Today's Zaman:
A statement published by the office of prime ministry later in on the day, clarified on Erdoğan's remarks and said Turkish officials have no option other than ban Twitter as it ignored Turkish court rulings to remove some links that were shared on social media. The statement said Twitter ignored all warnings from Turkish authorities about court decisions upon complaints and requests of some Turkish citizens who became victims via Twitter posts. Turkey will do everything to not to allow its citizens become victims, the statement said.
A twitter spokesperson tells Business Insider that it's looking into the incident. It also tweeted this:
Turkish users: you can send Tweets using SMS. Avea and Vodafone text START to 2444. Turkcell text START to 2555.
— Policy (@policy) March 20, 2014