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Turkey bans Twitter, Turks keep tweeting

An image of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on a twitter account is pictured through a magnifying glass in this illustration picture taken in Istanbul March 21, 2014. REUTERS

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is on a mission to “eradicate Twitter.’’

Erdogan announced Thursday that his administration had received a court order to ban Twitter in the country.

“We’ll eradicate Twitter. I don’t care what the international community says. Everyone will witness the power of the Turkish Republic,’’Erdogan said in a public address Thursday.

The Washington Post reported:

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Within a few hours, Twitter was inaccessible for Turkey’s citizens. Well, almost.

Twitter is still accessible through the site’s text messaging service, and many Turks are taking full advantage. Overnight, the hashtag #TwitterisblockinTurkey exploded on the social media site. Users of the hashtag were not only Turks, but those who supported the country’s freedom of speech.

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Ironically, Erdogan himself has a personal Twitter account. He hasn’t tweeted since attempting to initiate a blackout.

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