When I read yesterday about the coup attempt in Turkey I thought they were trying to oust the other dictator (Recep Tayyip Erdogan ονόματα δεν λέμε). Η απόπειρα στρατιωτικού πραξικοπήματος στην Τουρκία εξερράγη σε όλα τα κοινωνικά δίκτυα αργά την Παρασκευή, παρά την περιορισμένη πρόσβαση στο Twitter, το Facebook και το YouTube κατά τις πρώτες ώρες του πραξικοπήματος.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, a sworn enemy of social media who often targets Twitter and Facebook (when they do not use their own purposes), addressed the country via a FaceTime video call televised on TV.
Επίσης, ο λογαριασμός του στο Twitter ανέφερε: «Καλώ το έθνος μας στα αεροδρόμια και τις πλατείες για να αναλάβουν την κατοχή της democracyof us and our national will" and started retweeting the prime minister's posts from the president's official account condemning the coup.
Critics of Tayyip Erdogan were quick to point to the irony of the incident, as he began using a means he has repeatedly denounced to save his own presidency.
At the same time, supporters and opponents of the coup are flooding social networks with comments, images, and live video.
The situation in Turkey appeared on screens all over the world, with video showing explosions in the Turkish parliament, helicopters shooting protesters and opponents of the coup to stand in front of the tanks.
Supporters of the coup criticized Tayyip Erdogan, who, despite having passed a law banning it, used social media to urge people to come out on the streets.
It should be noted that during the initial stages of the uprising by a section of the army, access to social media was difficult or even impossible for many users, unless they used some use of a "virtual private network" to bypass local ISPs, which imposed the "Internet blackout" to put it bluntly censorship.
Twitter said there was a suspicion of a "deliberate slowdown" in its circulation, while YouTube said it was aware that the site was down in Turkey, and that there were technical difficulties, indicating that access was restricted through Turkey.
It was not immediately clear whether the government or some others ordered the block but later the services were restored.
Hotspot Shield, an application that allows users to connect to virtual private networks, said it saw an increase of more than 300 per cent in Turkey within two hours of the coup d'état being announced.
Also remind the Turkish government under Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly blocked social media in times of crisis and political uncertainty.
