Turkish watchdog says Twitter blocked by courts after complaints

Turkish telecoms watchdog BTK said on Friday that Twitter had been blocked by the courts after complaints were made by citizens that the social media platform was breaching privacy.

The watchdog had previously asked Twitter to remove some content but Twitter had failed to do so, the BTK said in a statement on its website.

"Because there was no other choice, access to Twitter was blocked in line with court decisions to avoid the possible future victimization of citizens," it said.

San Francisco-based Twitter said on Thursday afternoon local time that it was looking into the matter and had not issued a formal statement. But the company did publish a tweet addressed to Turkish users instructing them on how to continue tweeting via SMS text message.