Turkish President Abdullah Gul, a frequent user of social media, led the chorus of calls against the ban. And activists around the world quickly denounced the Ankara government.
“The decision to block Twitter, a leading medium of communication in Turkey, is quite a dramatic step for a government that claims to be democratic,” said David Kramer, president of the pro-democracy group Freedom House.
“It is a bold attempt to stop news of government corruption from getting out in the run-up to local elections. The government should immediately reopen Twitter and recognize that free, unhindered space for debate is essential in Turkey, as it is anywhere else.”
– Ban is ‘futile’ –
Some activists and analysts said the ban was unlikely to succeed.
“While the ban seems futile, what it indicates is an increasingly authoritarian Turkey,” said Jillian York at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Georgetown University instructor Adel Iskandar, whose research focuses on Arab studies and the media, said the move “will almost certainly backfire by either making the government look like a democratic mockery, or showing them as fearful, or illustrating their political vulnerability.”
“It is not technically possible to completely shut off Twitter in a country like Turkey,” Iskandar said.
“In the past they imposed a ban on YouTube but it was ineffectual as people used proxies to circumvent the prohibition.”
Emily Parker, a New America Foundation fellow who has a new book on digital activism in authoritarian governments, noted that many people are able to use Twitter despite bans in countries such as China.
“Turkey may have an even harder time keeping people off of Twitter,” Parker told AFP.
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