All About The Turkey Twitter Ban And How The Common Turkish Are Fighting Against It
Two-week-old ban is lifted after Turkey's constitutional court rules that it breaches freedom of expression laws
By Sadho Ram — 21 Mar 2014, 01:33 PM — Updated over 10 years ago
Turkey Is Going To 'Pixelate' Tweets It Doesn't Like
The Turkish government will now pixelate or blur all "malicious" content on Twitter, according to the local Dogan News Agency.
mashable.com
Turkish Communications Minister Lütfi Elvan just released a written statement that says: "We [Twitter and Turkey] have reached a consensus to 'neutralize' malicious content that is the object of court decisions by pixelating." He didn't expound on what he means by "pixelating," but it's typically associated with the mosaic-like classic approach to censorship.
engadget.com
If Turkish authorities can indeed blur out tweets, then this saga might have taken an even crazier turn. Since that's bordering on the absurd, though, it's possible that "pixelating" might have just been the term Lütfi used for Twitter's Country Withheld Tool, which the website uses to hide tweets and accounts from a whole nation.
mashable.com
The minister says the decision was made during back-to-back meetings between Turkey's telecommunication authority (called TIB) and Twitter's execs who've reached a consensus to "neutralize malicious content." Twitter also gave the TIB super-tagging powers (after deleting over 200 offending tweets, that is), allowing officials to flag posts and accounts that they want to be censored ASAP.
engadget.com
Turkey Lifts Controversial Twitter Ban After Court Ruling
People hold placards as they protest against Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan after the government blocked access to Twitter
Image via sbs.com.auThe Turkish authorities have lifted a ban on Twitter following Wednesday's constitutional court ruling, officials and media reports say. The court had told the country's telecommunication authorities the two-week-old ban must be lifted as it was a breach of freedom of expression.
It may take a couple of hours for full access to Twitter to be restored. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had vowed to "wipe out Twitter" after users spread allegations of corruption. Users across the country found many ways of circumventing the prohibition, which was widely criticised and ridiculed.
theguardian.com
Smart phone image parodies Twitter bird in a criminal lineup after Turkey banned the social media tool
Image via nydailynews.comAccess to Twitter was blocked in Turkey in the run-up to local elections, which Mr Erdogan's ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party won resoundingly. On Wednesday Twitter's public policy team welcomed the Turkish court ruling, and said "we hope to have Twitter access restored in Turkey soon". The court told Turkey's telecommunication authority (TIB) to act on the ruling.
Hours After Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Threatened To "Wipe Out" The Social Network, Twitter Went Dark In Turkey Late Thursday
Speaking at an election rally in the western province of Bursa, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, "Twitter, mwitter kökünü kazıyacağız," which, depending on interpretation, roughly translates to the taunting, “We will wipe out Twitter, schmitter," or the more sinister, "We will wipe out Twitter and other similar sites."
slate.com
Those words turned into action, according to reports from users inside Turkey, around 4:30pm ET when the site was blocked. A Turkish journalist told The Daily Dot that the outage started just after Thursday midnight and gradually spread out, depending on users' internet providers.
stuff.co.nz
Turkish Users Trying To Open The Twitter.com Were Taken To A Statement Apparently From Turkey's Telecommunications Regulator (TIB)
The statement apparently claimed that four court orders had already been served requesting the site take down content including voice recordings which purport to show corruption in the Erdogan administration.
reuters.com
Twitter users in Turkey report that the social media site has been blocked in the country
Image via bbcimg.co.ukAnother statement, sent to the newswire from the prime minister’s office, had the following: "[In Erdogan's speech] it is stated that as long as Twitter fails to change its attitude of ignoring court rulings and not doing what is necessary according to the law, technically, there might be no remedy but to block access in order to relief our citizens."
"The International Community Can Say This, Can Say That. I Don't Care At All. Everyone Will See How Powerful The Republic Of Turkey Is," The Turkish PM Said Earlier On Thursday
He spoke after some users had posted documents reportedly showing evidence of corruption relating to the prime minister - a claim he denies. His office said that Twitter had not responded to Turkey's court rulings to remove some links, forcing Ankara to act.
Erdogan Has Previously Called Social Media A "Menace To Society" And Threatened To Ban YouTube And Facebook
Last year, at least 25 people were arrested for tweeting messages of protests against Erdogan and his government.
thewire.com
But Twitter Isn't Going To Leave Its Users tweetless
Twitter’s @Policy account tweeted instructions on how Turkish users can use the service via SMS text messaging in both the Turkish and English languages:
readwrite.com
Though users can send tweets easily using SMS, it's much more difficult to read them that way. To do so, users have to subscribe to individual accounts via SMS and receive updates from them. So while it's nice that people in Turkey are able to tweet the word out, it will be harder for them to follow conversations on the platform.
engadget.com
To subscribe to a user's tweets via SMS, users can send ON [username] to their carrier's Twitter short code (i.e., 2444 or 2555 for most Turkish users). Twitter provides step-by-step instructions on its support page.
readwrite.com
