Turkish Prime Minister Bans Twitter... Turkish People Turn Around And Ban The Ban

from the censorship dept

Fri, Mar 21st 2014 8:51am — Mike Masnick

Over the last few weeks we've discussed a few times how Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted to ban Twitter. If you don't follow the details of what's happening in Turkey, Zeynep Tufecki has a great backgrounder piece in the NY Times. Either way, the threats became reality, as Erdogan flat out announced his intent was to "eradicate Twitter" and also:

I don't care what the international community says. Everyone will witness the power of the Turkish Republic

Turkish ISPs followed the orders to block Twitter, but so far, it's not the power of the Turkish Republic we're seeing, but the power of people and technology to route around attempts at censorship. Many people quickly turned to VPNs or realized that they could still Tweet via text message... or that they could use alternative DNS providers. In fact, it's reached such a level that there's graffiti on the walls in Turkey pointing to Google's DNS which lets users route around the Twitter block:

Twitter is blocked in Turkey. On the streets of Istanbul, the action against censorship is graffiti DNS addresses. pic.twitter.com/XcsfN7lJvS
— Utku Can (@utku) March 21, 2014

And it appears that the people are winning so far, as Turkish Twitter users are still tweeting at quite a rapid rate.

As we had noted earlier, while the Prime Minister has been pushing this, Turkey's (less powerful) President, Abdullah Gul has been fighting back against these censorship attempts, and even went so far as to get around the ban himself to tweet against the ban and his tweet quickly was retweeted thousands of times.

Twitter itself is apparently looking into legal action to restore the site fully, but so far it seems that basic technology and the will of the people is beating out the "legal" process. As Tufecki has now noted, Erdogan may have banned Twitter in Turkey, but "people in Turkey had banned the ban."

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Filed Under: abdullah gal, censorship, dns, recep erdogan, recep tayyip erdogan, turkey, vpns
Companies: twitter

19 Comments

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avideogameplayer, 21 Mar 2014 @ 9:06am

Now we know who the REAL turkeys are...
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Mar 2014 @ 9:08am

Mister Erdogan, welcome to the 21st century. Apparently you have been asleep since the early 20th century, when phones were a novelty and criticizing leaders was still a capital crime...
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TheResidentSkeptic (profile), 21 Mar 2014 @ 9:22am

Conversation with IT
PM: " I want Twitter banned, and I want it now".

IT: Who is this guy? Doesn't he know that won't work? Yeah.. Let's just shine him on ... "Yes Sir! We can implement a DNS block for you"

PM: "OK... that's what I need. Do it now"

IT: "sure... here you go"

Internet: Damage Detected. Re-routing.
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Glen, 21 Mar 2014 @ 9:26am

Talk about a short memory. Did he bury his head in the sand when the Arab Spring was in motion?
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Watchit (profile), 21 Mar 2014 @ 9:30am

It's really sad seeing this. Turkey was such an open country last I visited...
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Call me Al, 21 Mar 2014 @ 9:32am

"Everyone will witness the power of the Turkish Republic's state"

I wonder if he is regretting being quite so bombastic considering their power is looking pretty ineffectual right now.
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John Fenderson (profile), 21 Mar 2014 @ 9:37am

Re:
I doubt it. Being bombastic is itself a sign of weakness.
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Just Another Anonymous Troll, 21 Mar 2014 @ 9:40am

I worry now that the Prime Minister will ban the banning of the ban.
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Michael, 21 Mar 2014 @ 10:09am

To complete the circle of stupidity, all he has to do is stand on an aircraft carrier and declare victory.
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Spaceman Spiff (profile), 21 Mar 2014 @ 10:33am

Much like QE1 did
Much like what Queen Elizabeth the First would do when someone "royally" pissed her off, I fully expect this bonehead Erdogan to shout from the top of the presidential palace "Off with their heads!"...
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Mar 2014 @ 11:12am

Re: Re:
I guess he is not savvy enough to be aware of that.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Mar 2014 @ 11:12am

I applaud the turkish people
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Mar 2014 @ 11:30am

When technologically impaired people try to make new rules... always hilarious. A DNS block should not be spun as a ban, however you want to put it; it's just a bad blocking attempt done by people that think they know a lot but really don't.
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jameshogg (profile), 21 Mar 2014 @ 2:17pm

Still not effective enough to ban infringing photos of the insides of libraries.
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jameshogg (profile), 21 Mar 2014 @ 2:19pm

Re:
In order to do that he'd have to shut down every ISP. Or cut the power, if LAN networks start spawning.

Basically, any machine that is even so much as connected to ONE other machine outside the country is a threat.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Mar 2014 @ 4:09pm

Re:
Behavior like his suggests that his head is not in the sand, it's the other way around.
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Anono Mizer, 21 Mar 2014 @ 6:10pm

Dear Mr. Erdogan
I don't care what the international community says. Everyone will witness the power of the Turkish Republic.

Which is dwarfed only by the ignorance of the Turkish Prime Minister.
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The Wanderer (profile), 22 Mar 2014 @ 12:49pm

Re: Re:
Well, I imagine he could institute severe penalties for e.g. having the alternate-DNS-info graffiti up on your building, much less for actually putting it up there. Add draconian enforcement efforts, and he might have some success in that regard.

There would probably also be significant negative consequences from it, but that's a separate issue.
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Murat Y, 1 Apr 2014 @ 12:35am

Twitter Policy
It's hard to believe it. Erdogan needed freedom and free thought against secular elite. But now he prohibits it. Twitter policy is one reason, we should say. They just don't care what Turkish courts say. They removed thousands of profiles from USA and Europe but now one from the rest of the world. Is it being used by politicians? Why wouldn't they remove a pornographic- blackmailing profile?
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