Prime Minister of Turkey Strengthens Twitter Ban

Turkish twitter ban

Late Thursday night, the open and free use of Twitter in Turkey ceased to exist when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan outlawed the use of the social media site. Though many are able to sidestep such bans, these gallant efforts to keep Twitter alive have hit yet another obstacle as the Turkish government strengthens its hold on the Twitter ban.

Turkey’s Twitter ban initially redirected Twitter users to another page showcasing several court orders against Twitter. This was easy for users in Turkey to circumvent through manual changes and using a different DNS server. But all that changed when the Turkish government blocked most DNS options, including Google’s, and blocked Twitter at the IP level instead.

On Saturday internet monitoring company Renesys confirmed the block of Twitter IP addresses in Turkey by tweeting this image for everyone to see:

All hope is not lost, as there are still a few options Turkish residents can use to circumvent the Twitter ban. Users can try a virtual private network to sidestep the ban or Tor, a browsing tool that redirects traffic. These alternatives, however, are more digitally complex, requiring a little more technical skill than methods that previously worked.

One thing is for sure, though: in trying to limit the use of Twitter, Prime Minister Edrogan actually facilitated a boom in tweeting and an upsurge in the social media site’s power.

 
What would you do if Twitter was banned in your country?

Photo by Nikolaos Bogioglou
via Washington Post

Mikaela Rakos

By Mikaela Rakos

Mikaela is both a writer and content curator for Dashburst, looking to discover and share the latest news, art, entertainment and more. When not tracking down new content to share with the world, you can find Mikaela spending quality time with her rescue dog.