Turkey blocked Twitter nationwide in 2014 after the service was used to spread corruption allegations.
The Turkish government restricted access to Twitter in March 2014, shortly before local elections. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticized the platform after recordings and allegations concerning corruption circulated online. The block was widely discussed internationally because users continued sharing material through workarounds such as alternative domain names and virtual private networks.
Turkey’s Constitutional Court later ruled that the blocking order violated freedom of expression, and access was restored in April 2014. The episode is often cited in discussions of internet censorship and the political power of social networks. Turkey later imposed additional restrictions on Twitter and other online services during subsequent political crises.