Is social media cut in your country when a terrible thing happens?

[Gord10]

I am curious about something, I wanted to ask it to my foreigner friends (you).

When a terrorist attack happens in Turkey, Facebook and Twitter get either blocked or too slow. Not because of technical failures, it is done by government. Pro-government people claim that this also happens in modern Europe countries, too. Is that right?

Terrorist attacks happen so frequently here, I am really worried about myself and the people I love.

[Scavenger]

It's not done in the UK. If anything social media gets even busier. There has never, to my knowledge, been a social media blackout in my country.

[Adeel]

I'm sorry to read about what happened in Turkey yesterday. My sympathies are with you and all the Turkish people. Coming from a country where both terrorist attacks and censorship is unfortunately common (although terrorist attacks have been reduced to a significant extent now), I can understand your feelings.

Despite the censorship, the social media is neither blacked out nor slowed down by the government whenever such an incident occurs.

[Khris]

Nothing of that sort happens in Germany. People would be in uproar if it did.

Edit: not surprised that ErdoÃ,,Ÿan uses cheap propaganda. Seems to be a staple of half-wit wannabe dictators.

[SinSin]

My condolences to you and your countrymen Gordo. It's such a shame that there are such cowards and idiots in our world.

I have to say that the only times I have experienced slowdowns or cut are at times when I have expressed my opinions regarding government. It's almost like I'm being vetted..  I'm probably being really paranoid tho

There was a time when I was researching. Freemen of the land and watch zeitgeist 3-4 times a year when I would be cut out regularly... But again its speculation with no proof.

[Cassiebsg]

That is to my knowledge not done in any EU land, or at least not in the 2 I know: Denmark and Portugal.
But I don't use social media, so I would not notice even if they did it (but am sure I would hear all my friends and colleagues complain if they did).

And sorry for the world being full of self-centred idiots.

[Retro Wolf]

These pro-government people are deluded or liars.

[Stupot]

Sorry to hear about what's going in in Turkey, brother. There are some awful people out there.

My experience is that nothing seems to be cut or slowed down. But sometimes there is this weird thing where some terrible or major news event is being talked about all Twitter, but no one on Facebook seems to be talking about it. Yesterday's Istanbul attack was one such example. Now I'm sure that's just a result of FB's algorithms, which seems to want to show me the same 10 people's crap (and is also hell-bent on trying to get me to follow Mark Zuckerberg) but sometimes news on FB seems conspicuous in it's apparent absence.

[Mandle]

I have been shaken by the horror of the images we are seeing on the news of this terrible event. I hope you can stay safe, and that your friends and loved-ones stay safe as well.

I think it is heartless and horrible for the government to cut social media access at such times! Having been through a major disaster here in Japan I know that it is impossible to reach anyone by cell-phone as the providers are overwhelmed by the spike in traffic. In this case social media is the alternative to reach people that you are worried about quickly...It's just crazy to take that option away...

I guess the government's excuse is that they are trying to prevent the terrorists from keeping in touch with each other to harm their coordination? If so: Any terrorists that need Facebook to coordinate on were probably caught long before their plans got even close to fruition...

[tzachs]

Does not happen in Israel (otherwise, we would never have Internet ).
In fact, we had incidents of people finding out that their loved ones died from the social media, before officials had a chance to talk with them.
I can totally relate to you being worried, I was worried a lot as a teenager, but the sad truth is that eventually I just got used to it.
If I try to analyze this without emotions, I'm pretty sure that the chance of getting killed by a terror attack is still much lower than other common causes (Cancer, car accidents, etc), and this perspective helped me to let go of my daily fears (you don't worry each day about car accidents, after all).

[Danvzare]

My condolences to you and your countrymen Gordo. It's such a shame that there are such cowards and idiots in our world.

I have to say that the only times I have experienced slowdowns or cut are at times when I have expressed my opinions regarding government. It's almost like I'm being vetted..  I'm probably being really paranoid tho

There was a time when I was researching. Freemen of the land and watch zeitgeist 3-4 times a year when I would be cut out regularly... But again its speculation with no proof.

Most likely it was just your internet acting funny.
My internet tends to cut out or experience random slowdowns, especially when it gets to the evening. And I'm not questioning any governments on the internet, as far as I know.

It's not done in the UK. If anything social media gets even busier. There has never, to my knowledge, been a social media blackout in my country.

I can verify this. I have never once heard of any social media site becoming inaccessible in the UK, for any reason.

[Radiant]

Pro-government people claim that this also happens in modern Europe countries, too. Is that right?

Absolutely not. In fact it makes news here any time some country decides to block the internet (or major parts thereof), simply because that would never happen in modern Europe (or, indeed, North or South America, or most countries in Asia either). The only countries that block large parts of the internet on a regular basis are China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, and Turkey. I think Indonesia and Egypt tried it once or twice but stopped when they got a big backlash over it.

[Gord10]

Thank you everyone for your wishes!

Yes, ErdoÃ,,Ÿan is the biggest liar I've ever seen. He slanders opposing people even if it can cause a civil war. For example, he claimed that protesters beat and peed over a covered woman, which made my covered female friends be afraid of me, because they thought I wanted to do this thing. Or he claimed that protesters drank alcohol in a mosque when they took sanctuary from police attacks, which caused a big civil unrest. These two are just examples.

I made Utopia of a Tyrant about him, by the way, during the time of big protests.

[KyriakosCH]

RIP..

__

Afaik social media (or other parts of the main internet) aren't shut down in any of the Eu countries.

Shutting them down is imbecilic, anyway. Moreover it is not as if posting on FB is very likely to lead to much (although it can if your country is more oppressive; eg it supposedly was how the revolts in Egypt were organized, and iirc Gezi riots also (?) ).

[sketchess]

Don't worry tooooo much @Gord10.

I have a multiple point of view from different country environments. Don't fool yourself guys by believing that there is one country net excluded from manipulations in one way or another. Some are just less conspicuous. It is as long as the history goes. There will always be reasons to find that steps seem necessary to stay in some sort of 'control'. This actions may not ever be comprehensible or rational, especially if they are fear driven. It is as sad as it is a part of our civilization and very common.

And by the way that bears no proportion when it comes directly to individuals. To get monitored, checked and questioned for laughable reasons is a much bigger cut into someones life. There is less left in the world that can freak me out. I rather stay grounded.

So long.

[Jack]

In South Africa our tv and radio news was banned from reporting on violent protests in the country until a few days ago.

But there's no net slowdown, because we'd also never have internet, and the ban didn't affect news sites or social media.

Shutting them down is imbecilic, anyway. Moreover it is not as if posting on FB is very likely to lead to much (although it can if your country is more oppressive; eg it supposedly was how the revolts in Egypt were organized, and iirc Gezi riots also (?) ).

Actually I think the protests didn't get really effective in Egypt until communications were cut, meaning people following at home had to see for themselves, but yeah, it started on facebook.

[AnasAbdin]

I think most social media is shut down right now in Turkey. I hope at this moment that you are fine. Please take care of yourself. Whether you are pro or against the current government, military in the streets is not a good sign.

stay safe and keep us updated with your safety.

[Mandle]

I hope you and yours stay safe, Gord10, and that stability can return to your country swiftly.

EDIT:

From CNN news:

More gunfire; no social media

More gunfire rings out as a confused nation watches. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all experience interruptions or outages in Turkey.

Turkey Blocks, a group that tracks censorship in Turkey, tweets that all three services are blocked in the country as of 10:50 pm local time. Dyn, another service that tracks Internet performance globally, reports that Facebook and Twitter are blocked for "about an hour."

[Gord10]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Social media was cut only for a short time, but we were able to use it back again. Maybe it was because what happened was a self-coup, I don't know.

This is what I wrote on my Facebook:

My foreigner friends ask me if I am alright. I am safe, but not mentally good. I don't certainly know what happened. Was it a self-coup or an actual attempt of coup? My guess is, it was both. The commissioned officers who attempted the coup were deceived, "We will arrest ErdoÃ,,Ÿan, you will occupy the television building", but what they did would never be important enough to make the coup real. So yeah, it was a mixture of reality and theater, I believe.

The only thing I know is, it will be hard for secularists like me. We are shown like as if we wanted a coup. And a totalitarian regime is waiting for us. My friends think of leaving the country, but I will stay and fight for my Kemalist values.

[Mandle]

Good to hear you are safe!

[RickJ]

Gord10,  I'm glad you and your family are OK.  You are a courageous guy and I hope you prevail in your fight. I have always been big on freedom and so I empathize with you.

Thanks for the insight into what's going on.  If you don't live and work in a country it's not really possible to understand the politics there beyond a superficial level.  Unfortunately far too many people only have a superficial understanding of the politics of their own country let alone other countries.

Stay safe and free my friend.

[Jack]

This is looking more and more like another Reichstag fire.

Erdogan's Staged Coup Has Resulted In A Purge Of 50,000 Teachers, Judges, Soldiers And Government Officials

Some MSM links from that article:

Turkey coup: Purge widens to education sector

Turkey's President Erdogan won't rule out death penalty

My thoughts are with you, Gord10.

[Gord10]

There are theories.

1) Self-coup
It's the case of Reichstag fire. Most of the anti-ErdoÃ,,Ÿan people believe in this theory. It makes sense, because the government doesn't care about people's lives who would be lost during the scened coup. And after this coup attempt, ErdoÃ,,Ÿan is something like a prophet here.

2) Fethullah Gülen
Feto used to be an ally of AKP (the governing party), then they became enemy. Government says that the coup was organized by him. And this is what I believe. Because some Kemalists I respect and opposing parties say it, too. There were Kemalist soldiers who were imprisoned by AKP & Feto a few years ago, slandered with preparing a coup. Even those soldiers say Feto was responsible.