![Social media clapdown: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.](/web/20160607172844im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/3/5/c/8/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.hvlub.png/1395585519480.jpg)
Social media clapdown: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Photo: AP
Turkey has blocked a Google service used by Turks to circumvent a ban on Twitter, Turkish newspapers said, as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government defended its social media clampdown.
The government has prevented access to Google DNS, the newspapers reported. To use Twitter, Turks had turned to DNS, which was created in the 1980s to help computers find websites using words instead of numbers. Calls to Mr Erdogan's office and the country's telecommunications watchdog went unanswered on Saturday.
"Preventive measures" against Twitter were taken in response to its defiance of hundreds of court rulings, Mr Erdogan's office of public diplomacy said. "Twitter has been used as a means to carry out systematic character assassinations by circulating illegally acquired recordings, fake and fabricated records of wiretapping."
Turkey has said it will lift restrictions on Twitter when the company complies with the nation's requests. Twitter suspended an adult-content account today, reacting to a Turkish request, state-run Anatolia news agency said.
Mr Erdogan said on March 20 he would stop leaks that threatened his government before March 30 local elections, drawing condemnation from the United States and the European Union.
Turkey's government is struggling to block access to almost daily leaks, primarily from two anonymous user accounts. The government says the recordings are assembled by montage.
Mr Erdogan has also said he may ban Facebook and YouTube, where users have shared videos, recordings and transcripts that were first published via Twitter.
Users are deftly employing ways around the blackout.
Estimates by data services say millions of tweets have been sent in the first 36 hours of the ban, including some by President Abdullah Gul, who was critical of the move despite belonging to Mr Erdogan's AK Party, and pro-government newspapers, which have posted messages trying to justify the decision.
Social media rating agency Somera said usage of Twitter had increased by 33 per cent since the ban went into effect late on Thursday.
Hashtags about the ban were trending both inside the country and abroad, making the topic of Twitter in Turkey one of the most talked about issues on social media.
The Sabah newspaper printed a list of 16 reasons given by the prime minister's office for the ban.
Data-crunching services estimated some 17,000 tweets were being sent a minute from the country. While initially usage dipped in the early hours of Friday, users quickly discovered workarounds.
Some of the most popular methods included changing DNS settings to Google's public domain, employing proxy networks known as VPNs, connecting via the Tor network of virtual tunnels and similar systems, many of which are free.
Graffiti and posters went up around Istanbul publicising ways to get around the ban. Some Turkish television and radio stations also explained to their audiences how to circumvent the blackout.
Bloomberg, DPA