Daily Updates with RF Rizwan Farrukh
Twitter users in Turkey have reported that the social media site has been blocked in the country.
Some users who have tried to open the Twitter site seem to be being redirected to a statement by Turkey’s telecommunications regulator.
It quotes a court order to set ‘protection measures’ to the site.
This came after MP Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to wipe out Twitter due to harmful accusations of exploitation in his inner circle.
James Reynolds, from the BBC is also in Istanbul and also reports he is also unable to access Twitter.
This is what Mr Erdogan said earlier on Thursday, “I don’t care what the international community says at all. Everyone will see the power of the Turkish Republic.”
He spoke this after some users posted documents, which allegedly showed evidence of fraud relating to the PM; this claim, he has denied.
His office has said that Twitter had not responded to Turkey’s court rulings to have some links removed, which is what forced Ankara to act.
At the moment, there has been no public comment made by Twitter on this issue.
Across Turkey there are almost 10m users, who use Twitter.
In 2010, a similar case involved the blockage of YouTube; it was banned for two years because of videos considered insulting to the country’s founder, who is known as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
