Turkey Lifts Its Twitter Ban
Although YouTube remains blocked, Turkey's telecoms authority has decided to restore access to Twitter only a day after the court ruling against the ban. The Constitutional Court ruled that blocking the site was a "violation of the right to free expression." Originally blocked on March 21 in response to leaked wiretapped recordings of senior officials, Prime Minister Erdogan's critics saw this ban as another authoritarian measure masking another corruption scandal which he dismissed as fabrications. Twitter itself responded via tweet that it welcomed the ruling. Within minutes of the ban lifting, the site flooded with messages from users welcoming the country back.
Just how powerful is social media becoming that we actually ban it from an entire country? With the abundance of these sites created and evolving into this constant part of our lives addicting us to the point where we can't put our phones down, we become more and more eager to post every detail of our day online. Such things as:
The vending machine was out of Coke....so I had to drink Diet Coke. Sad face.
#DayRuined #Gross #LifeSucks #WhyDoIBother #NotFair #Hashtag #HashtagsEverywhere
are the new social norms. When sites for silly outlets like this become so powerful that a country has to go forth and actually block it from its entire populace, there lies a problem.
If these recordings were not leaked on Twitter, they would have been posted to the next biggest site. Whether its an embarrassing moment, a cat gif, or pornographic content, once someone decides they want it on the internet, it is almost guaranteed to end up on the internet.
It is ludicrous to think that a country's leaders will go so far to try and save their tarnished reputations that they would actually ban an entire communications website. If these were really fabrications like Erdogan claims, then why even bother blocking the site hosting them? They could have simply been deleted from the site and strictly monitored on the internet via a Turkish government office. These are clearly the panicked reactions of a guilty conscience.
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