Finally, the microblogging platform has given up trying to fight the Turkish censorship and agreed to ban people from talking about government corruption. Before the elections, the Turkish government tried to stop its people from using Twitter as they discussed a government corruption scandal there. The authorities simply switched off Twitter in the country.
Despite the scandal, the government still won the election – apparently, the Turks expect their politicians to keep stealing their money. Unfortunately for Twitter, this means that the government can safely tell the website that if it wants to continue to make money in the country, it is going to have to do what they want. So, the authorities have been working directly with the microblogging service to resolve "the problem" of inconvenient tweets.
The Turkish media revealed that the Turks are likely able to ban or filter certain tweets from ever appearing using a filtering system detecting “malicious content”. This would result in the banning of certain Turkish phrases on Twitter and the death of at least 2 accounts that have been noticed disseminating anti-government materials.
Of course, it is much easier for the Turkish government to suppress tweets instead of blocking Twitter while keeping its citizens passive. Somehow, the Turks have managed to avoid social media helping overthrow an increasingly autocratic government by being even more autocratic. Worse still, Twitter appears to be helping a government that seeks to silence its people and hurt free speech. The social networks, including microblogging platform, were used as a tool to remove governments in Egypt and Tunisia, but Turkey made this its way.
Despite the scandal, the government still won the election – apparently, the Turks expect their politicians to keep stealing their money. Unfortunately for Twitter, this means that the government can safely tell the website that if it wants to continue to make money in the country, it is going to have to do what they want. So, the authorities have been working directly with the microblogging service to resolve "the problem" of inconvenient tweets.
The Turkish media revealed that the Turks are likely able to ban or filter certain tweets from ever appearing using a filtering system detecting “malicious content”. This would result in the banning of certain Turkish phrases on Twitter and the death of at least 2 accounts that have been noticed disseminating anti-government materials.
Of course, it is much easier for the Turkish government to suppress tweets instead of blocking Twitter while keeping its citizens passive. Somehow, the Turks have managed to avoid social media helping overthrow an increasingly autocratic government by being even more autocratic. Worse still, Twitter appears to be helping a government that seeks to silence its people and hurt free speech. The social networks, including microblogging platform, were used as a tool to remove governments in Egypt and Tunisia, but Turkey made this its way.
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