Turkey has a long standing reputation for censorship. They have once again blocked Twitter after photos and videos of a recent terrorist attack were posted. Twitter has since complied with a court order to remove over 100 pieces of content from the site. It appears Turkey has lifted the ban on Twitter, at least for now. As you can see in the image below Turkey is by far the most controlling country when it comes to content they want removed from Twitter. Russia is but a distant second to Turkey.
As you can see Turkey submitted nearly 500 removal requests to Twitter in the last six months of 2014. The next closest country was Russia with 91 requests. That means the Turkish government sent Twitter five times more requests than Russia. In comparison the United States sent 32 requests and the United Kingdom sent Twitter 22 removal requests. We aren’t saying that Twitter accepts all the requests. In fact they only granted 13% of the requests made during that six month time period.
The latest Twitter ban may lead to more problems as the Associated Press is reporting that the Turkish government wants to quiet the online call for protests over the recent terrorist attacks. Protestors are blaming the Turkish government for the attack. They feel that President Tayyip Erdogan is supporting the Islamic State. The government denies the allegations and may continue to use censorship as a means to quiet the dissent.
This certainly isn’t the first time Turkey has blocked access to Twitter and I’m sure it won’t be the last. By now most Turkish citizens are well aware that using a VPN will help them get around the government censorship. The problems in Turkey have led to blocking a number of sites including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube over the years. Remember that you can use a VPN to help protect your privacy while in Turkey or anywhere else. It will encrypt your data and allow you to access blocked websites.