Twitter works to restore service in Turkey after ban

Members of the Turkish Youth Union hold cartoons depicting Turkey's Prime Minister Recept Tayyip Erdogan during a protest in Ankara against the ban on Twitter.

By Jessica Guynn

March 21, 2014 3:26 PM PT

SAN FRANCISCO -- Twitter is working to get its service back up and running in Turkey after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pulled the plug on the social network.

“We stand with our users in Turkey who rely on Twitter as a vital communications platform,” Twitter’s policy team said in a tweet on Friday. “We hope to have full access returned soon.”

The ban was prompted by links posted to Twitter of audio clips that appeared to incriminate Erdogan in corruption ahead of local elections.

Erdogan used a court order to direct Turkey’s telecommunication authority to block Twitter in the country.

Turkish users of Twitter, who number 12 million, have found ways to get around the ban and have been protesting on Twitter.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul himself spoke out against the ban in a series of tweets.

The White House also issued a statement: “We oppose this restriction on the Turkish people’s access to information, which undermines their ability to exercise freedoms of expression and association.”

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