ANKARA:The attempted militarycoup in Turkey exploded across social media late on Fridaydespite restricted access to Twitter,...
ANKARA:The attempted militarycoup in Turkey exploded across social media late on Fridaydespite restricted access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube during the first hours of the putsch.
Immediately after the coup attempt began, two groups thatmonitor internet shutdowns reported that it was difficult orimpossible to access social media services.
Twitter said itsuspected an "intentional slowing" of its traffic.
YouTube said it was aware of reports that its site was downin Turkey although it was not experiencing any apparenttechnical difficulties, indicating that an order to restrictaccess came from within Turkey.But later in the evening it appeared that service had beenrestored.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, an avowed enemy of socialmedia who has frequently made Twitter and Facebook a target,addressed the country via a FaceTime video call that was shownon TV.
He also tweeted: "I call our nation to the airports and thesquares to take ownership of our democracy and our nationalwill" and retweeted posts from the prime minister and theofficial presidency account condemning the coup.
At the same time, both supporters and opponents of the coupinundated social networks with commentary and images, many ofthem live videos.
A map showing all Facebook Live videos showed dozens of livestreams coming out of Turkey, including videos of hundreds ofpeople gathered out on the streets.
On Twitter, users sharedimages and videos of scenes in Istanbul and Ankara, withgunshots heard in the background of some videos.
Turkey´s military said on Friday it had seized power, butthe prime minister said the attempted coup would be putdown.
During the initial phases of the coup attempt, it wasdifficult or impossible to access social media for many usersexcept by using a "virtual private network" to bypass localinternet providers, local residents and monitoring groups said.
Hotspot Shield, an app that allows users to connect tovirtual private networks, said it saw a more than 300 percentincrease in new downloads in Turkey within two hours of the coupbecoming public knowledge.
The Turkish government under Erdogan has repeatedly moved toblock social media in periods of crisis and politicaluncertainty.It was not immediately clear whether the governmentor another actor ordered blockages late on Friday.
Data from CloudFlare, which provides internet traffic andsecurity services to websites, showed a 50 percent drop ininternet traffic coming out of Turkey, the company´s chiefexecutive, Matthew Prince, said on Twitter.
Turkey has throttled social media at least three times thisyear, said Access Now, a digital rights advocacy group.
"People in Turkey will need access to information and, ifthere is violence, access to emergency services - all of whichdepend on stable communications channels," Access Now said in astatement.