More tweets from Turkey than before Twitter ban, U.S. says

Many expected Twitter to go quiet in Turkey after access to the U.S. social network was blocked by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But the opposite is the case, according to U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, who claims there have actually been more tweets from Turkey since the controversial ban was put in place.

Harf said on Monday the case marks a “signal to people who try to clamp down on freedom of expression: that it doesn't work, and isn't the right thing to do,” AFP reported.

“What the world saw was the number of people inside Turkey tweeting about what they thought about it being blocked there,” Harf added.

Erdogan acted to ban Twitter after opposition members used the social network to post telephone recordings implicating him in a major corruption scandal.

The U.N. on Tuesday joined the U.S. in condemning Turkey’s block on Twitter, saying Ankara could be breaching its international-rights obligations in imposing the ban.

“We are concerned that the blocking of access to Twitter on the 20th of March by the telecommunications agency may be incompatible with Turkey's international human rights obligations,” said Rupert Coville, spokesman for the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, AFP reported.

“The same rights that people have offline must also be protected online. So we would urge the authorities to rescind the blocking of Twitter,” he added.

(With AFP)