Erdogan Vows to ‘Wipe Out’ Twitter in Turkey · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Turkey has blocked Twitter – as well as Google's public DNS service, used to circumvent the block. It seems, however, that the Turkish government's plan to censor dissent has backfired, as tweets coming out from Turkey are on the rise.
The ban on Twitter, which reportedly effects some 10 million users in Turkey, follows the publication of documents allegedly exposing corruption in Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's inner circle.
News reports say that Erdogan promised to “wipe out Twitter” adding that he did not care what the international community says.
Juan Cole describes Erdogan's attempt to block the micro-blogging service as “clumsy”:
Erdogan’s clumsy attempt at internet censorship crashed and burned immediately. Turkish youth are sophisticated about using Tor and VPN workarounds, and the Turkish twittersphere was reconstituted so fast it probably made Erdogan’s head spin.
Erik Meyersson adds:
#Turkey tweeps discovered @torproject last year, no surprise ppl still tweeting despite #TwitterisblockedinTurkey pic.twitter.com/Exz3kVh91l
— Erik Meyersson (@emeyersson) March 23, 2014
And Turkish researcher Zeynep Tufekci is all smiles that Turkish Twitter users are making their voices heard despite the ban:
:-) “despite”=”because of” RT @mashable Whoa: 1.2 million tweets sent in Turkey, despite ban http://t.co/P7MIhx6Vhr pic.twitter.com/OKzxHFcALT
— Zeynep Tufekci (@zeynep) March 21, 2014
However, she adds:
A DNS block, followed by a patchy IPS block, then who-knows-what. Turkey is on its way to high tech literacy. Next up, grandmas on Tor.
— Zeynep Tufekci (@zeynep) March 23, 2014
From Turkey, Engin Onder describes how Turkish Twitter users spread the word on how to circumvent the block:
#twitter blocked in #turkey tonight. folks are painting #google dns numbers onto the posters of the governing party. pic.twitter.com/9vQ7NTgotO
— Engin Onder (@enginonder) March 21, 2014