Twitter down in Turkey as earthquake response criticism mounts

Twitter turned inaccessible on main Turkish cellular suppliers on Wednesday as on-line criticism mounted of the federal government’s response to this week’s lethal earthquake.

AFP reporters had been unable to entry the social media community in Turkey. It was nonetheless accessible utilizing VPN companies that disguise a consumer’s location.

The netblocks.org social media monitor mentioned Twitter was being restricted “on multiple internet providers in Turkey”.

“Turkey has an extensive history of social media restrictions during national emergencies and safety incidents,” the monitor added.

Turkish police have detained greater than a dozen folks since Monday’s earthquake over social media posts that criticised how President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authorities has been coping with the catastrophe.

Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor and its aftershocks killed not less than 11,200 folks in southeastern Turkey and components of Syria.

Turkish social media have been crammed with posts by folks complaining a few lack of search and rescue efforts of their provinces. The Twitter outage got here as Erdogan toured two of the hardest-hit Turkish provinces.

Turkish officers launched no speedy statements in regards to the service disruption.

But they’d issued repeated warnings about spreading misinformation prematurely of a vital May 14 election during which Erdogan will attempt to prolong his two-decade rule.

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