The Turkish prime minister may have ordered the tap turned off, but citizens are still sneaking their tweets through the Twittersphere. March 21, 2014 6:45 AM PDT (Credit: Twitter/screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET) The people of Turkey are still alive and well on the Twittersphere despite a government ban of the site. On Thursday, Turkish courts took Twitter offline for the country's 76 million citizens following actions by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. An unabashed critic of social networks, Erdogan has threatened to "wipe out" the site in the wake of a political corruption scandal that has embarrassed the government through news, videos, and images posted on Twitter. But many Turkish citizens are tweeting their way past the ban with help from Twitter and Google. Following the shutdown, Twitter quickly informed Turkish users that they could still tweet using SMS. Google also is providing a helping hand through the use of its free DNS (Domain Name System). Setting a PC or mobile device to use Google's DNS IP address of 8.8.8.8 is another to way to slip past the ban. Graffiti displaying the phrase: "DNS 8.8.8.8" has even been spotted around Turkey, helping spread the word to fellow citizens. An image being posted on Twitter flashes the message: (8.8.4.4 is the alternate address for Google's DNS). As such, the best laid plans of Erdogan to censor Twitter seem to be backfiring. Since the ban started, the people of Turkey had posted more than 2.4 million tweets by 3 a.m. local time on Friday, CNBC reported, citing stats from Turkish website Zete.com. Soon after the ban, the hashtags #TwitterisblockedinTurkey and #TurkeyBlockedTwitter quickly became two of the top trending tags around the world.
The Turkish prime minister may have ordered the tap turned off, but citizens are still sneaking their tweets through the Twittersphere.
(Credit: Twitter/screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET)
The people of Turkey are still alive and well on the Twittersphere despite a government ban of the site.
On Thursday, Turkish courts took Twitter offline for the country's 76 million citizens following actions by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. An unabashed critic of social networks, Erdogan has threatened to "wipe out" the site in the wake of a political corruption scandal that has embarrassed the government through news, videos, and images posted on Twitter.
But many Turkish citizens are tweeting their way past the ban with help from Twitter and Google.
Following the shutdown, Twitter quickly informed Turkish users that they could still tweet using SMS. Google also is providing a helping hand through the use of its free DNS (Domain Name System). Setting a PC or mobile device to use Google's DNS IP address of 8.8.8.8 is another to way to slip past the ban.
Graffiti displaying the phrase: "DNS 8.8.8.8" has even been spotted around Turkey, helping spread the word to fellow citizens. An image being posted on Twitter flashes the message: (8.8.4.4 is the alternate address for Google's DNS).
As such, the best laid plans of Erdogan to censor Twitter seem to be backfiring.
Since the ban started, the people of Turkey had posted more than 2.4 million tweets by 3 a.m. local time on Friday, CNBC reported, citing stats from Turkish website Zete.com. Soon after the ban, the hashtags #TwitterisblockedinTurkey and #TurkeyBlockedTwitter quickly became two of the top trending tags around the world.
