Turkey Twitter Erdogan Social Media Ban Court
Turkey's courts have blocked access to Twitter a little over a week before elections as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan battles a corruption scandal Reuters

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's pledge to wipe out Twitter has not stopped citizens finding other ways to satisfy their social media needs with 10,000 new users from the country signing up to the dark net browser Tor every day.

Last week, the software was attracting 10,000 new Turkish users per week but this has increased by 700% to 10,000 new users a day because of the restrictive Twitter ban.

An Ankara court has temporarily suspended a government agency's decision to block access to Twitter but the threat of the continued internet restrictions has driven Turks to the anonymous ghost-web browser.

Tor, originally standing for The Onion Router, is a system that can be used to create online anonymity by directing web traffic through a worldwide volunteer network consisting of thousands of relays, concealing the user's location and their browsing history from anyone.

Such anonymity means that users are able to buy illegal drugs, weapons and even use Twitter under a government ban without fear of being identified.

Erdogan has called Twitter a "menace" for being used to mobilise anti-government protests against his increasingly authoritarian rule.

The Turkish Twitter ban caused global controversy with tens of thousands of Twitter users reacting with spoof photos, cartoons, memes and artworks to express outrage at the decision to shut down the popular social media site.

More than 500,000 tweets were posted in the first 24 hours using the hashtag #twitterisblockedinTurkey, according to social media search engine Topsy.

Erdogan has reacted to the ongoing corruption scandal engulfing him with the Twitter clampdown. Voice recordings and documents have emerged which prove corruption within the ruling Turkish elite.

The Turkish leader said the recordings were "vile fakes", but in one of the audio clips, Erdogan is heard asking his son to remove large amounts of cash from his house.

Twitter is in talks with Ankara to resume operations and have pledged the site would return to Turkish citizens soon with a guarantee of privacy protection.