Turkish Twitter users - led by the country's president - have defied a government ban on the social networking site as world leaders condemned the move and opposition leaders vowed to challenge it in court.
The popular micro-blogging site, one of several that has been used to publish allegations of corruption in Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's inner circle, went dark in Turkey late Thursday.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul, a frequent user of social media, led the chorus of calls on Friday against the move, which comes days ahead of key local elections on March 30.
Government officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, also published tweets despite the ban as Turks took to the internet to vent their fury.
"A complete ban on social media platforms cannot be approved," tweeted Gul, adding that it is not "technically possible to totally block access to platforms used all over the world".
Tweets from Turkey, which has 10 million users, were up 138 per cent on Friday afternoon compared to Wednesday, according to social media analyst Brandwatch.
Opposition politician Aykan Erdemir said his party would take "legal action" against the ban, warning that the move would put Turkey into a league of undemocratic countries like China.
Twitter responded by saying on its official @policy feed that Turks could get around the block by tweeting through mobile telephone text services.
Online, outraged Twitter users shared details of how to flaunt the ban, including using "virtual private networks" to get to the site or by making it seem like they are accessing from a different country.
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