home Governance Turkey blocks access to Twitter, Whatsapp by throttling

Turkey blocks access to Twitter, Whatsapp by throttling

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As reported by Reuters.com

A Twitter logo on an iPhone display is pictured next to a Turkish flag in this photo illustration taken in Istanbul March 21, 2014. REUTERS/Murad Sezer
A Twitter logo on an iPhone display is pictured next to a Turkish flag in this photo illustration taken in Istanbul March 21, 2014. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

Access to social media sites Twitter and Whatsapp was blocked in Turkey on Friday, an internet monitoring group said, following the detentions of 11 pro-Kurdish lawmakers in the mainly Kurdish southeast overnight.

Access was being blocked by throttling, an expert from the monitoring group Turkey Blocks said, a method of slowing certain websites to the point where they are unusable.

(Reporting by Can Sezer; Writing by Humeyra Pamuk)

In 2014, Erdogan had issued orders to block Twitter throughout Turkey; he then banned YouTube amid a series of leaked recordings of government officials.

Under Erdogan’s leadership, Turkey has been criticized for its continued and unprecedented efforts to clamp down on Internet freedom and human rights. in the same year , Turkey’s top court overturned parts of a new law that gave the Turkish telecoms authority broader Internet surveillance and censorship powers.

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James Barnley

I’m the editor of the DomainingAfrica. I write about internet and social media, focusing mainly on Domains. As a subscriber to my newsletter, you’ll get a lot of information on Domain Issues, ICANN, new gtld’s, Mobile technology and social media.