Use a VPN to stop this happened again.
Such as Yoga VPN, Bestline VPN, Super VPN...
Turkish GSM networks currently play a message of the President on any phone call
191–199 of 199 posts
Re: Turkish GSM networks currently play a message of the President on any phone call
#192It's a lie like so much other stuff in the press. I'm currently in Turkey/Antalya, I've a cell-phone with a turkish Vodafone SIM card - I had several phone calls today - no president in my phone.
I think it was done by the telco, not on a national level. Turkcell did it (not that Turk Telekom wouldn't - they just didn't think of doing ito\) and Vodafone, being a huge multinational, can avoid licking government ass so they didn't have one (Similar situation on TV; the only major network that occasionally supports the opposition is Fox - yes, in Turkey, fucking Fox is left-wing - kinda)
Re: Turkish GSM networks currently play a message of the President on any phone call
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which part of aytekin's message reminds you of the US? For me, it was the notion of those in villages / rural areas having increasing interest in power, as they feel increasingly abandoned & their values ignored. It reminded me of the US Midwest becoming more interested in politics, leading to Trump's win over Clinton: “You saw turnout spike in more rural counties,” Alexander said. “If you take a look at a lot of the…
Rise of the Rednecks
...or the downfall of the Bluenecks? While some living outside of metropolis can rightly be called 'redneck' and others have taken to the title as a badge of honour, most fall in neither category. Just like most living inside the ant heap would resent being called a blueneck, really.
Re: Turkish GSM networks currently play a message of the President on any phone call
#194Re: Turkish GSM networks currently play a message of the President on any phone call
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
Implementations for something as "innovative" as this are bound to be spotty early on. Is there even pre-existing infrastructure/services/software support in typical networks for stunts like this or was this something they had to build? Did they need to involve their network infra suppliers? For Turkcell that's fully outsourced to Ericsson; network hardware, services implementation, ops, etc etc; pretty much everythi…
It's called "early media" and it's something standard, sometimes used to announce that the call will be charged at a premium rate and giving the caller a chance to hand up before the call begins and they get charged.
I should have known, an organization as complex as 3GPP couldn't not already have invented this :)
Re: Turkish GSM networks currently play a message of the President on any phone call
#196Even if you stop watching TV, reading newspapers and following the political people on social media and avoid discussing political news with people, you can't escape from him and his followers. They will force you to believe what they believe and if you don't, they will flag you and also make you listen their leader no matter what you do to avoid their propaganda. Even though I believe that the leaders of Gulenist gr…
> Gulenist group did the coup attempt Has the government provided convincing evidence of this? I know Gülen was immediately accused despite not being in the country, but I don't know of any evidence of his audience being involved beyond Erdoğan not getting along with the guy, which automatically makes any opposition sympathetic to him.
The government has not provided convincing evidence that "Gulenist group did the coup attempt" although there were at least some Gulenists involved. Bellingcat got hold of the whatsapp messages of some of the coup guys and the seem much more like the Kermalist / secular military types that did Turkey's previous coup attempts. (https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2016/07/24/the-turkey-c...)
Erdoğan was out to get the Gulenists as some of them did try to get rid of him by exposing his corruption earlier but that's a different thing from attempting a coup. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/1065...)
Re: Turkish GSM networks currently play a message of the President on any phone call
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
They still have elections.
'elections'
It's a gray area. So far, at least, they still count the votes, and the votes do add up to the majority. You could argue that in the absence of truly free media, those voters are deceived, and are voting against their interest. But then we have free media in US, and yet...
Turkey is not the only country like this, by the way. In Russia, the government similarly enjoys majority popular support, even though elections aren't even free at this point (numerous fraud issues). Many would say that Hungary and Poland are on their way to this same place.
I would argue that such a system is still democratic, insofar the government does reflect the desires of the majority of the electorate. It is no longer a liberal democracy, however, with checks and balances to prevent abuses and to allow the electorate to (in theory) make informed decisions. Perhaps "authoritarian democracy" would be an appropriate term.
Re: Turkish GSM networks currently play a message of the President on any phone call
#198Dexter Palmer's 2016 novel Version Control had imagined something rather like this in a near-future United States, where phone calls and video screens would occasionally be interrupted by a message from the president. I had thought it was inventive and evocative, but sort of unrealistic. I was wrong. Yikes.
Watch Black Mirror's episode "Fifteen Million Merits"...
Re: Turkish GSM networks currently play a message of the President on any phone call
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
'elections'
It's a gray area. So far, at least, they still count the votes, and the votes do add up to the majority. You could argue that in the absence of truly free media, those voters are deceived, and are voting against their interest. But then we have free media in US, and yet... Turkey is not the only country like this, by the way. In Russia, the government similarly enjoys majority popular support, even though elections a…
However, one has to see that many countries that are considered "real" democracies have quasi cartels as well. The most famous example being the US, however it's certainly not limited to that. Other candidates do get rejected by other than grassroots style media. Even opposition within certain movements is sometimes suppressed.
However, I don't think that any of this does make a country a non democracy, as long as you are not having a hard time making the cross on the opposition.
You can maybe call the level of democracy lower, the less information you have, which includes things like history, or public education of how the democratic systems work, or low level of transparency or scary things like secret laws, interpretations of laws, etc.
I don't think authoritarian democracy makes sense. It's a democracy that has an authoritarian party ruling, but the system behind it currently isn't exactly authoritarian itself.
That difference is important I think, because without well defined words and phrases everyone will use that phrase against critics as well making these terms very hard to use.
I am sorry for using the US as an example here. It isn't meant to be a "what about", but I chose it as a country that most readers here likely know enough about when it comes to politics. So I chose it to have a hopefully good example. Similar problematic areas for democracies exist around the globe, probably in every democratic country. I think one can always work on developing democracies through increasing transparency, education and information.
EDIT: Oh and it's certainly also not meant to defend what is going on in Turkey. Authoritarian parties are likely to reduce the transparency, education and information and also likely to transform it into an authoritarian system.