Twitter is banned in Turkey just days before election
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to “eradicate” what he calls “the worst menace to society”: social media.
At 11:30 p.m. Thursday night, the Turkish government officially blocked the country’s 33 million Internet users from Twitter. Just days before elections, it is one of the biggest moves by a government to unabashedly censor its population in recent history.
Erdogan’s move comes shortly after a voice recording leaked of him and his son discussing how to hide no less than $1 billion dollars of cash in safe houses. The leader calls the conversation, which apparently took place in December, “completely false” and a “dirty plot.”
People attempting to tweet from the country now find an error sign, or what appears to be a DNS redirect, where their personal accounts used to be. The prime minister has also threatened to kill YouTube and Facebook.
Committee to Protect Journalists
CPJ promotes press freedom worldwide and defends the right of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal.