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Twitter is blocked in Turkey

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Re: Twitter is blocked in Turkey

#22

Post by izelnakri »

Reminds me of this scene from Pirates of Silicon Valley:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b27Mf6wTZ3w

"It’s about power. It’s like those weird countries man where the army guys overthrow the president. The first thing that they take over is the way people communicate; radio, tv, newspapers. Information is power."

Turkish army has nothing to do with this case of course.

Re: Twitter is blocked in Turkey

#24

Post by poulsbohemian »

I was there on business in 2010 and I said "man, this is a country on the move! We need to set up an office here." English is taught from early grades, there is good infrastructure in the western part of the country, a young, educated population with a relatively small domestic economy - great place to outsource and a bridge between europe and asia. Things have fallen apart so quickly since then - wouldn't touch it now. Hope things get back on track, as there is so much potential.

Re: Twitter is blocked in Turkey

#25

Post by jliechti1 »

egeozcan wrote: post #12
guard-of-terra wrote: post #7

Internet is falling apart. I think that appreciation for free speech, press and freedom of expression is lower today than it was for a long time of recent history. "They" just push and push on it and we're helpless. Not even constrained by paying it lip service. Do we still have non-violent ways to counter this and make our voice heard? Because otherwise violent ways become aspired.

I'm getting depressed by these kind of news. My votes do not seem to change anything and I feel hopeless. I can't find anything meaningful to say and I just want to ignore the whole situation but keeping silent just feels wrong.

Don't despair completely.

Not Internet related, but there are some large students going on in Taiwan right now [0] based on concerns on how a new trade agreement with China was passed. The bill was passed in a legal way, but many of the discussions around it were behind closed doors and the Taiwanese people feel that the government is no longer "representing the people." The response against has been pretty described as "unprecedented", people who are normally not interested in politics are getting involved to see how they can help.

"We do not want to clash with the police...we just have to let the government know that never try to fool the people."[1]

I find their vigilance inspiring. This level of spontaneous organization seems difficult to carry out in the US though. Taiwan is considerably smaller than the US, and I think that makes a large difference unfortunately.

[0]: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-19/taiwan-students-occ...

[1]: http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/19/world/asia/taiwan-student-prot...

EDIT (to respond to guard-of-terra): > "Turns out they just sit in their office and pretend nothing happens."

Definitely a valid point. We shall see how long this sustains for.To clarify, when I say "getting involved" I mean many people are taking to the streets, not just armchair activism.

Re: Twitter is blocked in Turkey

#27

Post by guard-of-terra »

izelnakri wrote: post #22

Reminds me of this scene from Pirates of Silicon Valley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b27Mf6wTZ3w "It’s about power. It’s like those weird countries man where the army guys overthrow the president. The first thing that they take over is the way people communicate; radio, tv, newspapers. Information is power." Turkish army has nothing to do with this case of course.

In this case I'm not so sure.

They just say: we can take things from you, and you can't do anything about that. They'll just say that you had them "elected" - as if someone voting for them gave them rights to take what is not theirs.

They're just trying to teach the young generation helplessness. You can't do anything, better learn your VPN, feel fear and don't touch politics. You're a minority anyway compared to an army of aged citizens so no point in trying. They're vote for any extortion for a small share of profits.

Re: Twitter is blocked in Turkey

#28

Post by berkay »

Many sites including Youtube did get blocked in the past, but safe to say this one is different. It is an explicit attempt to silence non-traditional media by the government. They have been working on controlling the traditional media (TV, newspapers, etc.) for a long time.

Recently, social media has been making a bigger impact, hence the explicit play. Current administration sees itself in an existential struggle and willing to do anything to stay in power. The model that they aspire seems to have switched from the west to Russia/China.

Whether they will be able to succeed in silencing social media will have implications beyond Turkey.

Re: Twitter is blocked in Turkey

#30

Post by guard-of-terra »

jliechti1 wrote: post #25
egeozcan wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm getting depressed by these kind of news. My votes do not seem to change anything and I feel hopeless. I can't find anything meaningful to say and I just want to ignore the whole situation but keeping silent just feels wrong.

Don't despair completely. Not Internet related, but there are some large students going on in Taiwan right now [0] based on concerns on how a new trade agreement with China was passed. The bill was passed in a legal way, but many of the discussions around it were behind closed doors and the Taiwanese people feel that the government is no longer "representing the people." The response against has been pretty described…

Don't want to discourage you but we had this "unprecedented, people who are normally not interested in politics are getting involved" thing in Moscow a few years ago and it all died out. Turns out they just sit in their office and pretend nothing happens. And it works unless you actively overthrow them.

Of course they say Russians are a nation of slaves but there you go.

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