Twitter Works to Restore Service as Turkey Blocks Access

Twitter is working to restore service to Turkish citizens, after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan blocked access to the microblogging social network.

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

The ban came shortly after anonymous users posted audio clips of what could be incriminating evidence of Erdogan and other top Turkish officials engaging in corruption -- clips that emerged just days before key local elections in the country. Erdogan apparently used a court order to command Turkey’s telecommunications authority to block Twitter use within the country, though many have found easy ways to circumvent the ban and access the service.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul spoke out against Erdogan’s actions -- in a series of tweets, appropriately enough -- claiming that suppression of the service should occur only if citizens’ personal freedoms were being violated.