Twitter is Blocked in Turkey

Only few hours after PM Erdoğan’s words “We will root out twitter in Turkey” in an election rally in Bursa province, authorities shut down the access to twitter via default DNS in Turkey. 

PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addressed to the crowds in the northwestern province of Bursa this early evening, saying that they would “root out the social media network twitter” in Turkey. 

“The court issued a ruling. Some might say ‘What would the international community say?’ I don’t care,” he added. 

The “protection measure” has been taken for this website (twitter.com) according to the following decision by Telekomünikasyon İletişim Başkanlığı: Decision Nr. 2011/795 dated 03/02/2014 of Istanbul Anatolian 14^th Assize Court, Decision Nr. 2014/181 dated 18/03/2014 of İstanbul Anadolu 5. Peace Criminal Court, Decision Nr. dated 20/03/2014 of İstanbul Prosecutors Office (special duty with Anti-Terror Act Article 10) and Decision Nr. 2014/223 dated 04/03/2014 of Samsun 2^nd Peace Court.  

Several users reported that they couldn’t access twitter via DNS and complaint that they had to access twitter by changing their DNS. 

Prior to the restriction, Prime Minister Office Press Undersecretariat made the following [not officially translated] statement: 

“In the current situation, we have been in a process where twitter officials have remained insensitive about the removal of some links reported by some citizens of Turkey who took the cases to relevant courts. Even though Telecommunication Communication Office have made the necessary initiatives, twitter officials still remained unreponsive to these demands. 

It has been noted that there might not be any other remedy, technically, than to block the access to twitter in order to resolve the victimization of our citizens providing that no further changes will take place in the attitude towards ignoring court decisions and justice making. 

Our Prime Minister has also brought the matter to the public attention during his speech in Bursa." (HK/BM)