Twitter battle in Turkey escalates after govt bans Google service

Washington: The Turkish government`s move of banning access to a Google service that allowed citizens to tweet, inspite of an already existing ban, has reportedly escalated the country`s fight over Net censorship.

The battle took a new turn after Google turned down the request of the Turkish government to remove YouTube videos critical of the country`s prime minister. The citizens had found a way of side stepping the ban by using Google`s DNS IP address of 8.8.8.8 on PCs or mobile devices. However, on Saturday the government successfully prevented all access to Google DNS, the Cnet reported. Google said that it supported a free and open Internet throughout the world and were concerned whenever and wherever it came under threat. Meanwhile, expressing serious concern over the ban, the White House condemned the blockage by the Turkish government and said that it opposed such a restriction that prevented citizens from accessing basic communications tools.