Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan may not get the vote figures that he would have wanted ahead of the elections after this social media censorship stunt. According to a Bloomberg report, the country has now blocked Twitter access, prompting domestic and foreign cries of foul. Erdogan's move was said to be motivated on what seemed to be an online attack against him and his administration amid a corruption probe.
Even the country's president sounded pissed. Bloomberg said Gul posted in a Twitter post that the total ban of a social media platform should should not be condoned that that he is hoping that the Twitter ban wouldn't last. Like Gul, he and other Twitter users could have accessed their accounts via proxies and other workarounds, the news agency said. The shutdown reportedly occurred just hours after Erdogan blasted the San Francisco-based social media firm for ignoring court orders to remove content that were related to the corruption probe.
Bloomberg said the content Erdogan was pertaining to where from two anonymous Twitter users. One of them goes by the Twitter handle Haramzadeler, which Turkish media translated as Sons of Thieves," or "bastards," said the news agency. The other one goes by the Twitter handler Bascalan, or when translated, means "Prime Thief." The two has been published new material related to the ongoing corruption probe on Erdogan and his co-conspirators.
Leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu of the main opposition Republican People's Party had said that the ban was already harming the image of the country to the world and that his party were attempting to overturn it.
In response to the Twitter ban, Star newspaper had quoted today minister for communications Lutfi Elvan, who said that the ban was implemented because of a court ruling in relation to pornographic pictures on the site.
Bloomberg quoted Erdogan, who said that the leaks and the investigation were part of plans to undermine him before the municipal elections on March 30.
