Social media was locked following the attack of Heyet Tehrir el Şam’ın (El Nusra) against Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) which resulted in 33 soldiers losing their lives. As a result of the reactions against the Syria policy of the government, access to Twitter, Instagram and Facebook was banned. Telegram and Whatsapp are also inaccessable. 

 

While neither operators nor official sources have any explanation regarding the access to social media, users try to use their accounts through VPN applications.

 

 

'GOVERNMENT DOES IT ON PURPOSE'

 

We asked social media specialist Dr. Yaman Akdeniz about the ban on social media.  Akdeniz stated that social media accounts were deliberately blocked via the Information and Communication Technologies Authority and said, “It is something the government does. It is not a technical fault. While there are no access issues in the world in these kind of situations, in Turkey social media platforms are inaccessable since last night. This is aimed at preventing the right of the people to recieve news."

 

'THE BLOCKING IS POLITICAL'

 

Akdeniz said: "They want to serve news from a single source. When people cannot reach social media, they will try to get news from TVs. As the TVs are also under the control of the government, it will be tried to distribute information through a single opinion. The way to overcome this situation is VPN, but this is not very effective. It is not possible for everyone to use VPN and access social media. Moreover access to VPN is also blocked in Turkey. This blocking has no legal ground and it is political."