Ankara is "grateful" for Twitter's support to the country's anti-disinformation efforts in the wake of deadly earthquakes that hit Türkiye's southern region, the country's Communication Director Fahrettin Altun said on Thursday.
"Turkish authorities held a productive meeting with Twitter yesterday. We are grateful for Twitter's cooperation and pledge to support Türkiye's efforts to combat disinformation," Altun said on Twitter.
His remarks came a day after Türkiye reminded Twitter about its responsibilities toward disinformation, false reports, fake aid campaigns, fake accounts and sharing incorrect information on the social media platform.
"Disinformation is humanity's common enemy and a grave threat to democracy, social peace and national security. We look forward to working more closely with Twitter over the next few days and weeks," Altun said.
Previously, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan emphasized the need to fight against provocateurs who use disinformation to create confusion and distress among people.
"Twitter has been restricted in Türkiye on Wednesday," the Netblocks internet observatory said.
"Real-time network data show Twitter has been restricted in Turkey; the filtering is applied on major internet providers and comes as the public come to rely on the service in the aftermath of a series of deadly earthquakes," said Netblocks, which tracks connectivity across the globe.
The Transportation and Infrastructure Ministry was not available for comment. The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), the institution that has the authority to impose such restrictions, comes under the Transportation Ministry.
Cyber rights expert and professor at Istanbul Bilgi University, Yaman Akdeniz, said on Twitter that Turkish laws have several articles that could lead to a restriction of access to Twitter.
Akdeniz said it was immediately unclear what caused the restriction, adding that access to Tiktok was also limited in Türkiye.
At least 12,873 people were killed and 62,937 others were injured by two strong earthquakes which jolted southern Türkiye on Monday.
The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaraş province, affected more than 13 million people across 10 provinces, including Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Şanlıurfa.
Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, felt strong tremors that struck Türkiye in a space of less than 10 hours.
