DEMOCRACY?

Turkey Eradicates Twitter

Prime minister restricts access.

Just hours after Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan threatened to shut down Twitter, the government appears to have indeed restricted access to the social media site in most of the country. Earlier on Thursday, the prime minister told a rally in Bursa that “We will eradicate Twitter.” He added “I don’t care what the international community says. Everyone will witness the power of the Turkish Republic.” It appears Erdoğan utilized a recently passed and controversial law that allows the government to shutdown sites due to “privacy violations.” Last month, he said Twitter bots, what he calls the “robot lobby,” targeted the government, and he has also threatened to block Facebook and YouTube. Twitter is currently investigating the claims that it has been banned and told users alternative ways to tweet via SMS.