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posted by LaminatorX on Friday March 21 2014, @12:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-good-is-a-phone-call-if-you-are-unable-to-speak dept.

maratumba writes:

"Within the same day as the PM announced his intention to do so (previous story here), Twitter has been blocked in Turkey. Reports say that it is currently possible to circumvent the ban by using Google DNS. But the word is, they will not only prevent this method, but also block Facebook and Youtube."

Related Stories

Turkey's PM Might Ban Twitter etc 18 comments

maratumba writes:

"Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan vowed to "eradicate" twitter and possibly other social networking sites.

For a few months now, a series of unverified incriminating surveillance tapes are being released regularly on Twitter alleging that they 'prove' that high ranking government officials including the PM, are committing bribery, corruption and censorship. The tapes and footage are alleged to have been collected as a part of secret criminal investigation which became public in late December by arresting relatives of ministers close to Erdogan. With a quick maneuver, the government removed all the state attorneys, judges, and police which, it is claimed, he deemed a threat and ordered to destruction of all the collected evidence to prevent the investigation from proceeding.

But it is alleged that the evidence collected for the investigation is now being leaked on Twitter and this is said by some to 'show the depths of the corruption for anyone with a Twitter account'. Erdogan, who has been trying to discredit the evidence, has now moved to shutting down the social networking sites altogether, which might start happening after the local elections in 10 days."

[Eds Note: Under the Turkish Constitution, members of the Turkish Parliament have judicial immunity, not only for what they say but also for what they do, including crime.]

Turkish Citizens Fight Twitter Ban 25 comments

Fluffeh writes:

"Following up on the earlier story where Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan put a nation-wide ban on Twitter after they didn't remove content that made him look less than stellar, Turkish citizens reacted in much the same that file-sharers around the world have done when sites such as The Pirate Bay were blocked by their ISPs. They took to the open web to spread the word on how to circumvent web censorship but in a fresh twist, they also took to the streets posting information, graffiti with DNS records to the point where according to analysis site Zete.com, tweets in Turkey before the ban numbered 10 million a day they now sit at 24 million.

The Turkish Government responded in turn by (Google Translation) blocking Google's DNS."

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Subsentient on Friday March 21 2014, @12:08PM

    by Subsentient (1111) on Friday March 21 2014, @12:08PM (#19250) Homepage Journal

    We just had a story about possibly blocking twitter, and also, I saw this story in the queue long before the previous one was published. The previous never should have been published. We need a standardized code of conduct for editors, and solid protocols that must be followed.

    --
    "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
    • (Score: 4, Informative) by janrinok on Friday March 21 2014, @02:34PM

      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 21 2014, @02:34PM (#19320) Journal

      I understand your comment, but you have to realise that with only 2 active editors at present, even we have to sleep at some point. The stories are sometimes queued so that something is released even while neither of us is sat at a keyboard. In this case, the story was changing so quickly that the original story was overtaken by events before it was released. We are trying to correct the current problem regarding editor availability, but sometimes personal and professional matters take precedence over what is currently a volunteer commitment. Thus the 2 remaining editors are doing the best that we can do. It cannot be a (semi) dupe if it goes out before the next news item on the same topic. Also, we cannot hope to match our timeliness in reporting with that of an organisation spending millions of pounds on doing the same thing. The community are our reporters. I would ask that you report any relevant news items that you read elsewhere as promptly as you can and hope that they are in time for us to act upon them.

      • (Score: 1) by Subsentient on Friday March 21 2014, @03:07PM

        by Subsentient (1111) on Friday March 21 2014, @03:07PM (#19335) Homepage Journal

        It's nothing personal, this is a new site and it'll take a while to get things orderly. :^)

        --
        "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
      • (Score: 2) by Open4D on Friday March 21 2014, @07:15PM

        by Open4D (371) on Friday March 21 2014, @07:15PM (#19434) Journal

        ... only 2 active editors at present ... We are trying to correct the current problem regarding editor availability ...

        Well 2 obviously risks being unsustainable. But it sounds like you have the matter in hand; I hope it works out okay.

        I seem to remember lots of eager volunteers for the job in the heady days of altslashdot.org, but I guess the reality of the commitment (and thick skin needed?) has set in. Personally I never volunteered, and won't be doing so in the near future. Instead I would just like to say thank you to the editors and everyone else making this site work.

      • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday March 21 2014, @11:21PM

        by isostatic (365) on Friday March 21 2014, @11:21PM (#19525) Journal

        How DARE you have a life? What do I pay you for?

        Err, I mean what do I load these adverts for?

        Err sorry, what do I donate for?

        Ok, final go: what do I bitch and whine for while contributing nothing but witty, insightful comments for?

        Oh Dang it. I'll be in my bunk.

        • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday March 22 2014, @03:04PM

          by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 22 2014, @03:04PM (#19709) Journal

          At last - a comment that made me laugh! Thank you.

    • (Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Friday March 21 2014, @02:46PM

      by wonkey_monkey (279) on Friday March 21 2014, @02:46PM (#19327) Homepage

      It also has an exclamation mark at the end of the headline. What's that about?

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk
    • (Score: 2) by neagix on Friday March 21 2014, @06:50PM

      by neagix (25) on Friday March 21 2014, @06:50PM (#19412)

      And no exclamation marks in titles.

    • (Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Friday May 09 2014, @04:39PM

      by mrcoolbp (68) <mrcoolbp@soylentnews.org> on Friday May 09 2014, @04:39PM (#41306) Homepage

      I know this is an old comment, but here goes:

      "On a day when lots of things are happening, we reject some very good stories. But on a day when nothing interesting is happening, we may post something not really as cool."

      (from original slashcode FAQ)

      Also:

      "A lot of times, we don't use a particular story on a particular day, but at some later point, someone else submits it, and it ends up getting used. We have many people from across the globe working together to post things on here. What one of us finds stupid, the others might find interesting. Or it just might be the rest of the stuff that's going on that day. There are a variety of factors: the personality of the post, the quality of the submission, or even the quantity of stories already posted when your submission entered the queue."

      from the newly posted FAQ [soylentnews.org] here. (I do note this was added to the site long after this comment was posted).

      --
      (Score:1^½, Radical)
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by RobotMonster on Friday March 21 2014, @12:14PM

    by RobotMonster (130) on Friday March 21 2014, @12:14PM (#19253) Journal

    I'm jealous. How can I get Twitter blocked for my country?
    And Facebook?
    I'd like to leave YouTube unblocked though.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by VLM on Friday March 21 2014, @12:29PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 21 2014, @12:29PM (#19258)

      I'm willing to lose youtube in exchange for losing FB and twitter.

      I wonder if this is journalist babble for blocking any and all social media, because officially the only social media that exist are FB and twitter. OR is it specifically those two companies, which seems rather pointless once everyone moves to G+ and status.net or whatever.

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday March 21 2014, @01:20PM

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday March 21 2014, @01:20PM (#19274) Homepage

        In the U.S., all three are bad. They serve as propaganda platforms for corporate media and also as celebrity distractions from what Americans should be talking about. It's amazing how sites used as tools of freedom and liberty overseas are used as domestic tools of oppression.

        While Youtube does have decent independent videos, it too engages in censorship-by-proxy, and the other 99% of it is 15 year old kids playing Nirvana's "Come as you are" on the bass guitar. Good job, kiddo, you just learned the easiest song in the universe.

        All things considered, the "You" in youtube will eventually be the death of it. Try searching for "retards" and all you get are videos of normal people acting stupid -- despite Google's supposed technical search prowess, there are no actual videos of retards to be found via their search.

  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday March 21 2014, @12:26PM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 21 2014, @12:26PM (#19257) Journal
    And you laughed about apk hosts file? Who's laughin' now, eh?
    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by marcello_dl on Friday March 21 2014, @01:43PM

      by marcello_dl (2685) on Friday March 21 2014, @01:43PM (#19286)

      ssssshhhh, I'm trying to read the linux serial howto.

      • (Score: 2) by marcello_dl on Friday March 21 2014, @01:46PM

        by marcello_dl (2685) on Friday March 21 2014, @01:46PM (#19288)

        (Unmechanical) Turks should start investigating stuff like project-byzantium.org and even better sneakernet stuff

    • (Score: 2) by tibman on Friday March 21 2014, @07:43PM

      by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 21 2014, @07:43PM (#19449)

      I could use some tips on optimizing my iptables drop list : /

      --
      SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by wantkitteh on Friday March 21 2014, @01:18PM

    by wantkitteh (3362) on Friday March 21 2014, @01:18PM (#19272) Homepage Journal

    Just been told by a friend that Turks can still send tweets by SMS.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by radu on Friday March 21 2014, @01:18PM

    by radu (1919) on Friday March 21 2014, @01:18PM (#19273)

    it is currently possible to circumvent the ban by using Google DNS

    This is going too far. Maybe it's ok "to google" something instead of "to search the internet" because Google had a great impact on how we expect to be able to find things online.

    Maybe I like gmail *that* much because of it's nice web interface, or I'm not able to configure my own email server, or I can't afford ~5$/month to rent a server - so I trade my privacy for the convenience gmail offers.

    BUT:

    What about Open DNS? Or *any* other DNS? Are we that stupid that we're voluntarily feeding Google data even when we don't need to? And advertising this to everyone?

    What'll be next? gTCP/IP?

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by wantkitteh on Friday March 21 2014, @01:35PM

      by wantkitteh (3362) on Friday March 21 2014, @01:35PM (#19282) Homepage Journal

      One would hope that folks reading this would know how to find other open DNS to use and it's certainly got the easiest IP address to remember and pass around, but never mind, here goes:

      Google Open DNS: 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4
      OpenDNS: 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220
      DynDNS: 216.146.35.35, 216.146.36.36
      Verizon: 4.2.2.1, 4.2.2.2, 4.2.2.3, 4.2.2.4, 4.2.2.5, 4.2.2.6
      Level3: 209.244.0.3, 209.244.0.4 ...and about a trillion more for anyone who cares to Goo*ahem*search for "open dns server"

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 21 2014, @02:00PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 21 2014, @02:00PM (#19302)

        you forgot the important one:
        http://www.opennicproject.org/ [opennicproject.org]

        also you can use tor ...

    • (Score: 3) by Lagg on Friday March 21 2014, @01:47PM

      by Lagg (105) on Friday March 21 2014, @01:47PM (#19290) Homepage Journal
      Give me two nameservers that don't fuck around and return addresses going to ad-laden search sites instead of returning NXDOMAIN and I'll happily switch away from google's nameservers. I'm serious, please do. This is not a smartass remark. I really would use a better alternative. I'm not naive enough to think google doesn't already get domain data from the plethora of sites embedding analytics (granted, I do block it), but I do not need to make it easier on them.
      --
      http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
      • (Score: 1) by Subsentient on Saturday March 22 2014, @12:01AM

        by Subsentient (1111) on Saturday March 22 2014, @12:01AM (#19536) Homepage Journal

        My ISP CenturyLink seems to be good about that with their DNS servers, also for $5, they give you a static IP on a consumer account, and allow you to run servers explicitly.

        --
        "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
        • (Score: 1) by Subsentient on Saturday March 22 2014, @12:05AM

          by Subsentient (1111) on Saturday March 22 2014, @12:05AM (#19539) Homepage Journal

          Of course, if you aren't their customer, they might not let you use their DNS.

          --
          "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
    • (Score: 2) by lhsi on Friday March 21 2014, @01:59PM

      by lhsi (711) on Friday March 21 2014, @01:59PM (#19301) Journal

      I read somewhere this morning (although I can't remember where exactly now) that the Google DNS servers were supposed to be some of the faster ones.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by umafuckitt on Friday March 21 2014, @01:40PM

    by umafuckitt (20) on Friday March 21 2014, @01:40PM (#19284)

    I'm no expert on Turkey so I found this long and (I think) fairly balanced [nybooks.com] article on Erdogan and modern Turkey. It's worth a read if you want some info on the background against which this Twitter ban has occurred. In the second half of the article you will see that the press is being intimidated in Turkey and 60 journalists have been locked up (articled dated last year). You may also remember the Gezi Park [economist.com] protests from last year.

  • (Score: 1) by Drew617 on Friday March 21 2014, @05:53PM

    by Drew617 (1876) on Friday March 21 2014, @05:53PM (#19392)

    I've been halfheartedly following this story. The action's deplorable but the implementation is what jumped out at me.

    Someone in charge of internets at a national government thought blocking via DNS was going to work?

    WTF?

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by sgleysti on Friday March 21 2014, @07:51PM

      by sgleysti (56) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 21 2014, @07:51PM (#19453)

      It works for a large portion of the population. Measures like this are about population control, not technical perfection.

  • (Score: 2) by Boxzy on Friday March 21 2014, @08:42PM

    by Boxzy (742) on Friday March 21 2014, @08:42PM (#19480) Journal

    Now maybe some people will leave the house.

    --
    Go green, Go Soylent.
    • (Score: 1) by maratumba on Saturday March 22 2014, @12:06AM

      by maratumba (938) on Saturday March 22 2014, @12:06AM (#19541) Journal

      Funny story: almost right after twitter was blocked, there was a trending topic 'twitterIcinSokagaCikiyoruz' which translates as 'we are going out on the streets for twitter'. Very soon people found out that this hashtag was initially being promoted by bots. [hurriyetdailynews.com] People interpreted this whole affair as an attempt for creating pretext to declare marshall law and postpone the upcoming elections. Soon another hashtag, which basically urged people to calm down and stay at home became trending topic.

      I know how this must sound a little too Game-of-Thrones-like but it is only one of the many convoluted political maneuvers, and a rather obvious one at that, we have seen lately.

      More about current state of turkish politics can be found here [nytimes.com] and here [mashable.com].