The earthquake that hit southeastern Turkey and northern Syria early Monday morning (February 6) has already claimed nearly 13,000 lives within Turkey in addition to nearly 63,000 injuries, according to a statement released by AFAD, Turkey’s disaster response ministry, early on Thursday morning (February 9). Throughout the day on Wednesday, people across Turkey experienced difficulty accessing Twitter, a glitch that was attributed to a social media bandwidth restriction instituted by the Turkish government in response to alleged spreading of earthquake-related disinformation on the platform. The restriction received heavy criticism, as Twitter has served as a widely-used communication platform in search and rescue efforts throughout the first three days of the crisis.
Difficulties in accessing social media platforms, most notably Twitter, were first reported Wednesday afternoon around 4:00 pm. NetBlocks, a watchdog organization that monitors internet accessibility restrictions, shared an image showing that Twitter had been clocked in Turkey.
The screenshot released by NetBlocks read: “On February 08, 2023, 02:30 PM UTC, https://twitter/com/ presented signs of DNS tampering on AS 12897 in Turkey. This might mean that https://twitter/com/ was blocked, but false positives can occur.” Evidence from private users pointing to a blockage of the platform was also shared throughout Wednesday afternoon.
Disinformation Law
Following the social media access restrictions experienced by users on Wednesday afternoon, many pointed fingers at the controversial ‘disinformation law’ passed by the Turkish parliament in October 2022. Officially known as the ‘Press Law Amendment Proposal’, the law stipulates that social media platforms are required to hand over information requested by Turkey’s Information Technology and Communications Authority (BTK). Aimed at identifying individuals who ‘spread information intended to mislead the public’, the social media platforms are required to hand over user information to BTK, otherwise their bandwidth will be reduced by 90%. The stipulation of bandwidth tightening, which users across Turkey experienced Wednesday, followed news on Tuesday that four had been taken into custody on charges of spreading earthquake-related ‘provocative social media posts’.
Regarding the bandwidth tightening, Medyascope spoke with Freedom of Expression Association founder and lawyer Dr Kerem Altıparmak on Wednesday who described the bandwidth changes as a ‘block’: “The thing they refer to as a bandwidth restriction amounts to blockage. It is difficult to know for sure until they make an announcement regarding under what provision this blockage occurred, but my guess is that these restrictions are not covered under any provisions of the censorship law. According to that law, the prosecution must first request information from Twitter, after which the request may be rejected. Then, based on this rejection, the court must make a decision. But in this case the period of time allotted to Twitter has still not expired.” Altıparmak’s comments cast doubt on whether Wednesday’s restrictions are in line with the controversial law, given that sufficient time has not yet elapsed in order for Turkish prosecutors to request information from the social media giant and for Twitter itself to respond.
Electronic Communications Law cited as possible culprit
Given that Wednesday’s restrictions do not line up with the process stipulated in the disinformation law, Altıparmak instead attributed the disruptions to another law entitled the ‘Electronic Communications Law’, in which the Turkish President is given the authority to institute temporary service disruptions for certain providers in emergency situations. Under the law, the president may request that BTK restrict access to a certain site. A judge must then rule on the restriction within 48 hours, otherwise the ban will be automatically lifted.
Opposition response
Regardless of the bandwidth restriction’s legal footing, the move was heavily criticized by opposition politicians Wednesday afternoon. Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman and main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu released the following statement condemning the restrictions and a hindrance to quake relief efforts:
Medyascope'un günlük e-bülteni
Andaç'a abone olun
Editörlerimizin derlediği öngörüler, analizler, Türkiye’yi ve dünyayı şekillendiren haberler, Medyascope’un e-bülteni Andaç‘la her gün mail kutunuzda.
“I told my friends in the field to use VPN for coordination of relief efforts. This insane Palace government has cut off social media communication. The result is that cries for help will go unheard. We know everything that you’re trying to hide. We await your explanation.”
Several hours later Kılıçdaroğlu, who is considered a likely opposition presidential candidate, posted a video of CHP officials heading to BTK’s headquarters in Ankara to protest the blockages.
Meral Akşener, another opposition leader and chairwoman of the İYİ Party, also released a statement condemning the lapses in Twitter service:
“While communicating is of such vital importance to announce the needs of earthquake victims; why are you imposing a restriction? What kind of evil is this? What kind of dishonesty is it? Who and why are you afraid? Shame on you!”
Statement from Musk
Twitter CEO Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX owner recently acquired the platform. also released a statement regarding the lag in Twitter service across Turkey, confirming that the restrictions were made per government request: “The Turkish government restricted Twitter country-wide. In the regions affected by the earthquake, communication is one of the most important tools at the moment. There may be people still trapped under rubble trying to find help through Twitter.” Regarding attempts to restore service of the platform, Musk said: “We are currently trying to get in touch [with Turkish authorities] in order to understand more.”
On Thursday morning, Musk announced on Twitter that service would be restored across Turkey following news from the Turkish government. Many users, however, continued to experience difficulties accessing the platform.
