Turkish PacMan Eats Twitter

Twitter has been banned in Turkey. It is nothing unnatural, considering the Turkish past, especially the recent one, since the beginning of the internet era. What I say here, now, is from an uncontested personal view, and it is not my intention to create any discontent between Turkey and its neighbors or other passionate social media consumer nations. In Turkey, the access banning of certain sites is not news. Not that Twitter is the most accessed Social Media site in the democratic country, not that Turkey is the most democratic country in the world. I love Turkey, and I have my personal reasons for that, and just because of that, I feel I can express freely my unbiased view.

[source] – Twitter, I mean, it’s a Turkish funny twitt.

Twitter, the social media platform with 12 million Turkish users, has been blocked by the Communication Technologies Institution (BTK – Bilgi Teknolojileri ve İletişim Kurumu), working under the Ministry of Transport, Maritime and Communication, so it is not Dictator’s Erdoğan decision. Is he a dictator? I don’t believe so. Turkey achieved its greatest economical peak since Turgut Özal, under this Prime Minister, a Taliban wearing Armani suits and Rolex watches. I’m not quite sure of that last thing, as far as I’m concerned, he can sport an Audemar Piguet and I don’t give a damn.

“The aforementioned website, based abroad, ignored the rulings of the Turkish Republic’s courts. To prevent our citizens from receiving irreparable damage, there was no option left but to block access to Twitter in accordance with the court rulings,” the statement said. Access will be unblocked if Twitter removes “the illegal content,” the BTK warned.

I have that from Hürriyet Daily News, an online Turkish official newspaper.

I have written in the past about what I think on the subject. I have been upset for myspace.com’s ban (for absolutely non political reasons, on the contrary), and for youtube’s ban, this time for alleged “false” affirmations on Prophet Mohammed, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the most recent reason, Deniz Baykal, the former General Secretary of Social Democratic People’s Party(CHP). I have recently found that youtube has been banned again, last month.

Prime Minister Erdoğan is not stupid, President Abdullah Gül, is quite the pacifist. One can’t really “forbid” access, you know? They merely hamper your access whatever you want to access on the internet. They have to ban, or to prevent internet altogether to “ban” a site or an URL. The first ten most accessed internet sites (cf. Alexa) in Turkey are at the moment:

1. google.com.tr
2. facebook.com (it used to be the first
3. google.com
4. youtube.com

(banned)

5. hurriyet.com.tr (a tabloid with aspirations)
6. milliyet.com.tr (another tabloid – Turkish purists can claim that I’ve commited a sacrilege naming it a tabloid, but it is just that, nothing more. I consider “Radikal” a real paper, with the same owner as Milliyet)
7. twitter.com

(banned)

8. live.com (they have a lot of hotmail.com email addresses, I don’t think they use the search engine as much)
9. sahibinden.com (aleggedly the largest online classifieds and e-commerce platform in Turkey – means “from the owner”)
10. haber7.com (a fundamentalist television’s site, or at least, owned/sponsored by a religious extremist, this if I’m not wrong)

[source – another “comical” twit]

The official story of the ban is controversial. A court issued the ruling, in response to a complaint filed by former Transport Minister Binalı Yıldırım and his son. The guy candidates to be mayor of Izmir for AKP (Justice and Development Party), the party fathered by Prime Minister Erdoğan. He requested in his complaint, only the blocking of a certain Twitter account, @oyyokhirsiza (Oy yok hırsıza – do not vote with the thief!) and the afferent blog. The account’s owner, anonymous, of course, used strong language and made allegations against Yıldırım and son.

This is an example. (“We’re gonna show you how Binalı Yıldırım achieved 30 ships from bribes”).

In the court’s file, there are two more complaints about Twitter, the removal of one account considered fake because of using the plaintiff’s name, and another one, a lady of a certain reputation wanted the removal of her explicit photos shared on Twitter without her consent. One plaintiff’s lawyer said that they never asked for a total ban of Twitter. And another piece on the file is a decision of Istanbul’s Chief Prosecutor, but his office already denied any implication.

They say outside Turkey that this decision is what gave the start to a real effervescence on Turkish Twitosphere. They’ll start to use it (maybe), now being banned.

This article has been inspired by “near the road” remarks on “The Washington Post” and “Business Insider”, and based on information from Turkish papers. Of course, the mistakes are mine’s only.

 

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