Turkey fiercely criticized Twitter on Friday for suspending more than 7,000 accounts that supported President Tayyip Erdogan, saying the company was smearing the government and trying to redesign Turkish politics.

"(This) has demonstrated yet again that Twitter is no mere social media company, but a propaganda machine with certain political and ideological inclinations," said presidency communications director Fahrettin Altun.

In a written statement, he added that allegations these were "fake" profiles designed to support the president and were managed by a central authority were untrue.

Twitter said it was taking down 7,340 accounts from a network detected early in 2020 that it said was being used to amplify political narratives favorable to Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Fahrettin Altun also said documents cited to support Twitter's decision were unscientific, biased and politically motivated, and that it was scandalous to cite a report by individuals "peddling their ideological views."

Those remarks appeared to refer to a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory, with which Twitter shared its information, that said the network posted some 37 million tweets, promoting the AKP and criticising Turkey's main opposition parties.

"We would like to remind the company (Twitter) of the eventual fate of a number of organisations which attempted to take similar steps in the past," Altun said.

In the past, Turkey has blocked access to online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, YouTube and Twitter.

Yaman Akdeniz, cyber rights expert and professor at Istanbul Bilgi University, said the accounts removed by Twitter were only "the tip of the iceberg" of other questionable activity.

"This looks like a bot network that I think is not very active," he said, suggesting further investigation was needed. "But it makes it official that bots are used in Turkey for political purposes."

Earlier this week, Twitter also said it removed more than 170,000 accounts tied to a Beijing-backed influence operation that spread messages favorable to the Chinese government, including about the coronavirus. China then responded that the company should instead focus on removing "accounts that spread malicious messages in an attempt to defame China." 

Read more: Twitter's disinformation double standards are proof of info warfare

Twitter has been increasingly active in imposing scrutiny on the content its users published on the platform. 

Later last month, Twitter labeled two of President Donald Trump's tweets "unsubstantiated" and accused him of making false claims.

Vera Jourova, a European Commission vice-president, repeatedly praised the move, while saying she would like to see a similar approach taken by social media companies on other false information.

"Be it the president, be the diplomats, be it me... when we [politicians] say something we have to be accountable, and we should be able to stand that somebody goes and checks the facts."