The social website Twitter is being blocked in Turkey, hours after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to wipe it out.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he doesn't care what the world thinks. Photo: AFP
Some users trying to access Twitter say they are being directed to an online statement saying the site has been blocked by court order.
The apparent blocking of the website is dramatic but not surprising, the BBC reports. Hours before the site went down, Mr Erdogan mocked Twitter at a public rally and said he wanted to get rid of it.
"The international community can say this or that - I don't care at all," he warned.
The Turkish government, many of whose officials are regular Twitter users complained that the website failed to implement court rulings ordering the removal of various links.
Twitter has so far made no public comment on the issue.
There are about 10 million Twitter users across Turkey. In 2010, the country lifted its ban on YouTube - two years after it blocked access to the website because of videos deemed insulting to the country's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
