Twitter Back Online in Turkey; Here’s Why Turkish Officials Banned It in the First Place

Twitter is back online in Turkey after it was blocked by the Turkish government on Wednesday, Feb. 8.

The social media platform was banned in the country after strong earthquakes happened on Monday, Feb. 6.

Turkish officials explained that Twitter was blocked so that disinformation during the natural disaster could be prevented.

Twitter Back Online in Turkey

According to CNBC's latest report, Twitter's network data was spotted by NetBlocks.

The cybersecurity watchdog revealed that the social media platform has been restored after a few hours of filtering.

After Twitter was restored, Omer Fatih Sayan, Turkey's deputy transportation and infrastructure said that they held a video conference with the social media company.

They talked with Twitter Turkey Director of Public Policy Ronan Costello and Twitter Head of Global Government Relations John Hughes.

"We reminded the responsibilities of Twitter to our country during this devastating disaster," said the Turkish official via his Twitter post.

Twitter's Blockage in Turkey

Before Twitter's access was blocked in Turkey, numerous individuals were identified spreading misinformation.

The Turkish government said that they detained around 12 people on Monday, Feb. 6 after they posted content criticizing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The posts were mainly about how the leader and its officials failed to handle the disaster in their country.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake took the lives of over 11,000 residents in southeastern Turkey, as well as in some parts of Syria.

Because of this, many Turkish residents blamed the lack of rescue and search efforts in their provinces.

When Twitter was temporarily blocked, many users decided to use VPNs so that they can still access the social media website.

Proton, a leading VPN provider in Turkey, announced that its signups increased by 30,000% during the Twitter blockage.

Other stories we recently wrote about Twitter:

Twitter client developers decided to move to the social media company's rival, Mastodon.

We also reported that Elon Musk's new Twitter plan aims to rival payment services, including PayPal.

For more news updates about Twitter and other social media platforms, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.