Turkey’s war on Twitter

DOHA CENTRE

Turkey’s Twitter ban and the threat to shutdown Facebook and YouTube, just days before the local elections on March 30, has caused a huge uproar both on and offline.
Turkey's defiant Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to have taken an authoritarian route by blocking access to the hugely popular messaging service, reportedly affecting some 10 million users in the country.
"I cannot understand how sensible people still defend Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. They run all kinds of lies," the PM declared at an election rally on March 23.
His fresh diatribe came shortly after President Abdullah Gul voiced hope the government would soon lift the Twitter ban, which has been roundly condemned as a bid to muzzle a widening corruption scandal dogging the government.
"I believe this problem
will be over soon," Gul told reporters. "This is of course an unpleasant situation for such a developed country as Turkey, which has weight in the region and which is negotiating with the European Union."

 “Why did Erdogan ban Twitter?”
Erdogan also lashed out on Facebook and YouTube by accusing them of advocating freedom selectively across the globe.
"Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have to respect the Turkish republic's laws," he said. "Turkey is not a banana republic."
He said Twitter abided by national laws in countries such as the United States, Britain, China and Russia but that when it came to countries such as Turkey or Egypt, "Twitter talks about freedom".
The government said Twitter had failed to abide by hundreds of court orders to remove content deemed illegal.
“Erdogan is portraying himself and his party as a victim and it has worked very well in the past,” said Marc Guillet, a Dutch correspondent reporting from Istanbul since 2006. “He is saying that social media is immoral and a threat to family values within the Turkish society.”
In the run-up to the elections, Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) are also struggling to shake off the after-effects of mass anti-government protests last year that were organised partly on Twitter, prompting Erdogan to label the site a "menace". As the elections draws closer, the atmosphere in the country is becoming increasingly tense. DCMF spoke to another foreign journalist who is based in the country.
“My feeling is that many people are really frustrated – on both sides,” said Anton Klepke. “The AKP supporters are disturbed by the hardened climate, corruptions claims and the feeling of AKP being more and more isolated in the political context. They too are also frequent users of social media and Twitter.”
“The opposition is frustrated by the many demonstrations which over the last year have been met by police forces and been dispersed,” he added.
Erdogan, Turkey's charismatic and increasingly autocratic leader since 2003, has come under mounting pressure since audio recordings spread across social media that appeared to put him at the heart of a major corruption scandal.
They included an apparent discussion between Erdogan and his son about hiding money, and others in which he appears to be interfering in business deals, court cases and media coverage. Some of the most damaging information has come from a Twitter account under the name Haramzadeler ("Sons of Thieves"), which has published documents and police wiretaps allegedly linked to the investigation. Erdogan has dismissed most of the recordings as "vile" fakes concocted by his rivals.
In an interview with DCMF, Yavuz Baydar, a political columnist for Turkish daily Today’s Zaman, explained that 80 percent of TV networks are under government control, while newspapers remain “weak and timid” in their reporting.
“The shackling of conventional media during the past three – four years meant that all coverage of corruption was blocked by an alliance of government and media owners, whose interests converged in non-transparency,” said Baydar, winner of the 2013 European Press Prize.
“But in such a big country, with a strong tradition of journalism, the pressure was not sustainable, and all the information erupted through Youtube and Twitter, by leaks of dossiers and audio recordings. This is the reason why Erdogan declared social media as evil, and public enemy,” he added.

Outraged Turks defying the government ban
According to news reports, since the ban on Thursday, roughly 1.2 million tweets were sent by Turkish social media users. . Many local media oulets and Twitter itself have come out in support of the public by publishing step-by-step methods on how to flout the ban.
“I think it is important to remember that this isn't the first time the government are blocking big sites such as Twitter. YouTube, for example, has been blocked several times in Turkey in recent years. So the Turkish citizens and journalists have had time to learn about ways to bypass such measures,” explained freelance journalist Klepke, who has worked at the Swedish educational broadcasting channel in the past.
Hashtags #TwitterisblockedinTurkey and #TurkeyBlockedTwitter quickly started trending on the network following news of the ban, while the social media platform has been flooded with cartoons depicting the prime minister’s move.
Frustrated Turks have been able to access the US-based site by tweeting via text message or tweaking their Internet settings. Methods include changing their domain name system (DNS) settings or using a virtual private network (VPN).
But since Saturday there have been unconfirmed reports the government is trying to block access to lists of alternative DNS numbers.
Some may claim that this ban is ineffective as Turks are continuing to show their presence online but Guillet disagrees.
“There is still a section of the Turkish citizens who don’t know how to get around the ban or don’t have the technology to do so,” argued Guillet, adding that “the Turkish government is trying to intimidate the public through such bans.”
Experts say that the ban has really backfired as it has pushed more Turkish citizens into joining Twitter over the past few days and generated some bad PR for the government both locally and internationally.

Turkish media under threat?
The ban on Twitter is the latest in a series of moves by Erdogan's government to tighten its control of the Internet, which have included the banning of thousands of websites. YouTube was banned for two years until 2010 because of material deemed insulting to the country's revered founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Local journalists are sometimes forced to report on certain issues and sometimes they are forced to censor, explains Klepke. They also face the risk of losing their jobs or being arrested.
“It is important to remember that this isn't at all a new phenomenon. For example, the Kurdish community has been facing censorship, got their journalists and politicians arrested and faced violent crackdowns on their freedom of speech and human rights for decades,” Klepke said, adding that “these harsh measures by the Turkish state have been going on since long before Erdogan got to power. The abuse of power and crackdowns on the freedom of speech have in some ways just been inherited byErdogan.”
Baydar’s columns were censored and his previous employer fired him from over remarks made in an op-ed in the New York Times.
“The government-controlled media owners exercise daily control over editorial decisions and interfere whenever necessary. Phone calls to censor this or that, or add this propaganda piece or disinformation is rather common,” Baydar remarked.
“Editors cannot stand for ethical values and are not able to stand up against the employers, who cooperate with the powers. Prison is no longer a punitive measure. It has been replaced by a more discreet one: sackings en masse of those who disagree with government or proprietor pressure, of those who defend the honour of journalism. They are persona non grata; fired, and not being able to be rehired, because no other employer desires trouble with government or people with independence of mind,” he added.
Experts say that it is hard to predict the outcome of these upcoming local elections but if it favours AKP, Erdogan will declare himself uncorrupt.
“When people aren't allowed to express themselves freely on the Internet, and their demonstrations are met by water cannons and tear gas, there is a risk that the government is pushing it too far and that people’s frustration will turn into violence,” Klepke told DCMF, adding “when using the tactic of blocking the social media when the social media is used to criticise you, Erdogan uses the same strategy as the government of Bashar Al-Assad. And that is not the way to democracy.”

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