Skip to footer

Turkey doubles down on Twitter ban: PM vows to 'wipe out' damaging tweets

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan blocked Twitter after encountering tweets about a corruption scandal. Internet re-routing tricks used Friday to get around the ban are no longer working.

|
Burhan Ozbilici/AP
Members of the Turkish Youth Union hold cartoons depicting Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a protest against a ban on Twitter, in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, March 21, 2014. The cartoon depicts Erdogan (l.) saying to Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek, 'We will uproot Twitter.' Gokcek replies, 'Don't say that.'
  • By Daren Butler Reuters

| ISTANBUL

Turks faced fresh difficulties in accessing the Internet on Saturday after the government blocked access to Twitter, the site where tweets on a corruption scandal have angered Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Twitter was blocked late on Thursday, hours after Erdogan vowed to "wipe out" the social media service. Leading international condemnation, the White House said the Twitter ban undermined democracy and free speech.

Turks attempting to access Twitter have found an Internet page carrying court rulings saying that a "protection measure" has been taken, blocking the site.

But many have been able to get around the ban, either by using virtual private network (VPN) software or changing their Domain Name System (DNS) setting, effectively disguising their computers' geographical whereabouts.

By Saturday, though, computers that had been set with DNS numbers widely circulated to help people get around the ban were not able to access the Internet at all.

"Apparently alternate DNS servers are also blocked in Turkey. New settings are being circulated," wrote one Twitter user.

There was no immediate official comment.

Erdogan, who is campaigning for his party in local elections on March 30, did not talk about the Twitter block at rallies on Friday. He was due to continue campaigning on Saturday in the southern province of Hatay and in the capital Ankara.

Industry Minister Fikri Isik said on Friday talks with Twitter were taking place and the ban would be lifted if the San Francisco-based firm appointed a representative in Turkey and agreed to block specific content when requested by Turkish courts.

The company said in a subsequent tweet: "We stand with our users in Turkey who rely on Twitter as a vital communications platform. We hope to have full access returned soon."

A company spokesman declined to say whether it would appoint someone in Turkey but said it was moving forward in talks with the government.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Turkey doubles down on Twitter ban: PM vows to 'wipe out' damaging tweets
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0322/Turkey-doubles-down-on-Twitter-ban-PM-vows-to-wipe-out-damaging-tweets
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe