Turkey Bans Twitter Ahead of Heavily Contested Election

[FalloutJack]

Well, I'm certainly divided on this. On the one hand, Twitter is one of those pointless things I never bother with, like Facebook, 4chan, and Walmart. But on the other hand, Turkey is being really shitty, shortsighted, and idiotic.

Can I have a 'Dis gunna be good' picture, please?

 

[themilo504]

Erdogan I hate to tell you this but turkey is not the ottoman empire at the height of its power, it?s a regional power with lots of potential, stop wasting that potential by turning turkey in a Islamic dictatorship.

 

[Gary Thompson]

He should know that no one is impressed by Turkey anymore, and should just stop embarrassing himself.

 

[J Tyran]

I don't care at all. Everyone will see how powerful the Republic of Turkey is,"

Does this guy actually think you can stop the internet? The only way they could stop it is if they disconnect all their international data and phone lines, they would have to disable the whole countries mobile data to.

Will he really ***** slap his own countries economy to do this? I doubt it, all those businesses that rely on it will soon get him out of government if he did. All his campaign "donations" (official ones and the under the table ones) and any chance of a cushy corporate job after he leaves government will all dry up, his opposition would soon be swimming in cash for some reason too...

You can stop the signal!

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

Can I have a 'Dis gunna be good' picture, please?

Spoiler: Your wish is my spoiler tag

Power fears other power. This has been the concurrent story throughout human history. When governments assume too much power, people rise with their own to fight against them. Maybe it won't turn out so bad. Or maybe they'll bomb people using the Red Wings.

I think I've been playing way too many RPGs as of late...

Spoiler: And now the denizens of the internet watch the ongoing spectacle with glee

 

[waj9876]

Yes, do the exact same thing as the other nations who have had bloody coups and revolutions within the past decade. Obviously it's just a coincidence. Your power is totally pure and righteous, don't worry about the masses of people who now hate you, keep building yourself as important and that the Internet is some crusade against your power...uh, I mean, the freedom of your people. Yeah.

There's a pattern that's emerging, if people haven't noticed.

Jesus Christ it's like no one can put together the idea of "Maybe if we're horrible pieces of shit to our people, they won't like us anymore. And maybe if we try to violently suppress them, the other nations are gonna think we're assholes." Is this really such a hard concept to grasp?

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

"Everyone will see how powerful the Republic of Turkey is."

...Well if anything gives me confidence in this guy's total dedication to democracy (and to not becoming a non-fiction version of a Bond villain), it would of course be that.

 

[Somethingfake]

Turkey can't stop the signal.

 

[Jsbwalker]

You know, any competent internet user will use a VPN to get around this, I'm glad we can combat this totalitarian bullshit with social tools.

Nah, you don't even need to do that. I'm pretty sure all you have to do is browse to the direct IP of the website.

 

[Sofus]

Banning twitter and possibly also facebook and youtube surely won't make people angry. Oh bu-hu... someone either cut out certain pats of a recording or shows exactly how corrupt their leader actually is, but censoring people is not the way to win them over...

Evil dictator : "Ha! I will ban twitter so that nobody can speak badly about me... surely nobody can think for themselves"

Rational person: "Not to piss on your parade... but won't that give everyone the impression that you not only have a napoleon complex, but that you're also an evil dictator and a complete moron"

Evil dictator: "You dare criticise me!... I am the leader... the state and I are one... my will is final... MY LOGIC IS INFALLIBLE!... YOU WILL BOW BEFORE THE DALEKS... EXTERMINATE!... EXTERMINATE!!"

 

[RoonMian]

I don't think the Twitter ban is the big issue here, it's what the twitter ban signifies that is worrying. In the lead up to a very polarized election it could signal that Erdogan is willing to go as far as he sees fit to cling onto power. Islamist associated parties like the AK party have a history of being almost exclusively toxic to freedom of expression, democracy and have a history of sweeping abuses of power, destruction of women's rights and the censorship of dissenting voices.

You forgot the cleptocracy... The amounts of money Erdogan and his cronies and family embezzled... I think that is the real reason behind the Twitter shutdown... They're trying (and failing) to do some damage control on all the news breaking and since most of the mainstream media isn't really independent he targets social media instead.

 

[josh4president]

Well this can only end badly.

Here's hoping not too many people get hurt when the blindingly obvious happens.

Also:

"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,"

Is he trying to emulate Putin or something? Because I can think of a number of reasons why that is a bad idea.

 

[Strazdas]

The last quote, yeah, he went mad dictator route and are not either new North Korea or we are getting another Putin.

And as much as i hate Twatter i still see this as a bad thing.

also, has no government learned that no one under 30 is worried about a DNS block yet?

Could it be sabotaged intentionally by their IT department though? I mean stupid decision from people that dont know computers + people that know computers having to carry it out = i do the bare minimum and claim to them "hey i did edxactly what you asked me".

I still do not understand how it is possible that nutjobs like Erdogan,Putin and similar morons can get elected.

Its called propaganda. We have access to local Russian channels here due to our geographical proximity. you wouldnt believe.....

Does this guy actually think you can stop the internet? The only way they could stop it is if they disconnect all their international data and phone lines, they would have to disable the whole countries mobile data to.

Lybia tried that, people still got through via sattelite connection. and they surely couldnt shoot down the sattelites.

 

[direkiller]

also, has no government learned that no one under 30 is worried about a DNS block yet?

Could it be sabotaged intentionally by their IT department though? I mean stupid decision from people that dont know computers + people that know computers having to carry it out = i do the bare minimum and claim to them "hey i did edxactly what you asked me".

Strangely enough no. It's the only practical way for a government to shut off a website without hurting outer services.
It is just honorably bad at it, as long as there are people out there with unblocked public DNS servers(several owned by multi billion dollar companies)

The united states technically has another way(deleting the IP adress), but that shuts it off for everyone and comes with some diplomatic/political backlash if they were to do it to something like YouTube or Twitter.

 

[Strazdas]

also, has no government learned that no one under 30 is worried about a DNS block yet?

Could it be sabotaged intentionally by their IT department though? I mean stupid decision from people that dont know computers + people that know computers having to carry it out = i do the bare minimum and claim to them "hey i did edxactly what you asked me".

Strangely enough no. It's the only practical way for a government to shut off a website without hurting outer services.
It is just honorably bad at it, as long as there are people out there with unblocked public DNS servers(several owned by multi billion dollar companies)

The united states technically has another way(deleting the IP adress), but that shuts it off for everyone and comes with some diplomatic/political backlash if they were to do it to something like YouTube or Twitter.

DNS is the only practical way? how about IP blocking for start? then you cant acess it jsut by typing the IP you know. Or how about forcing ISPs to filter trafic by law? since if you go full dictator you may as well go all the way.

 

[direkiller]

also, has no government learned that no one under 30 is worried about a DNS block yet?

Could it be sabotaged intentionally by their IT department though? I mean stupid decision from people that dont know computers + people that know computers having to carry it out = i do the bare minimum and claim to them "hey i did edxactly what you asked me".

Strangely enough no. It's the only practical way for a government to shut off a website without hurting outer services.
It is just honorably bad at it, as long as there are people out there with unblocked public DNS servers(several owned by multi billion dollar companies)

The united states technically has another way(deleting the IP adress), but that shuts it off for everyone and comes with some diplomatic/political backlash if they were to do it to something like YouTube or Twitter.

DNS is the only practical way? how about IP blocking for start? then you cant acess it jsut by typing the IP you know. Or how about forcing ISPs to filter trafic by law? since if you go full dictator you may as well go all the way.

IP blocks only work if you control every digital avenue in and out of the given area(they do not). It is good for a business, not countries.

Also Most ISP don't let you type in IP addresses anymore, as it was away to get around to illegal sites(Child porn and the such).

 

[Strazdas]

Also Most ISP don't let you type in IP addresses anymore, as it was away to get around to illegal sites(Child porn and the such).

really? it always works fine here. heck i know some servers hosted without DNS via direct IP adress. its free if your hosting yourself. this is a very silly thing to do and the excuse is even sillier (shut down the sites instead).