Turkey Turns Off Access to Twitter


ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey restricted access to Twitter on Friday hours after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to "root out" the social media network where wiretapped recordings have...

Turkish PM threatens to ban Facebook, YouTube


ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's prime minister has threatened drastic steps to censor the Internet, including shutting down Facebook and YouTube, where audio recordings of his alleged conversations...

Turkish PM blames riots on ‘scourge’ of social media, prefers the calm of state TV

Turkish PM blames riots on 'scourge' of social media, prefers the calm of state TV

The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan, has condemned social media as a "the worst menace to society" following a weekend of anti-government demonstrations across his country. He singled out the "scourge" of Twitter in particular, since protestors have been using that platform to share information and vent anger at the government. Small-scale riots started over plans to build a shopping mall or mosque (depending on who you believe) on the grounds of a popular park in central Istanbul, but they quickly spread to other areas and to a broader set of grievances about Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian stance. None of these disturbances were especially visible on national TV stations, however, as there have recently been heavy crackdowns on press freedom within Turkey. From the sound of it, Erdogan would prefer a more tightly controlled internet too -- or perhaps none at all.

[Image courtesy of Adem Altan/Getty Images]

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Source: The Times (paywall)