Twitter was restricted in Turkey on Wednesday amid growing criticism at the government for its response to the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that has killed more than 21,000 people in Turkey and Syria.
The organization NetBlocks said it confirmed that there was a disruption based on network data.
It said that issues first happened with the internet providers TTNET and Turkcell and eventually extended to other operators.
“The filtering measure is likely to impact community rescue efforts underway after the series of deadly earthquakes on Monday,” the group stated.
Twitter has been heavily used in the aftermath, including to criticize the government, as well as for people stuck in the rubble to appeal for help or for information about their missing loved ones in the area.
A video posted on Wednesday with 1.3 million views reportedly shows officials from Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), including the transport minister, leaving one of the affected cities after an angry crowd surround them.
Berk Esen, an assistant professor of political science at Istanbul’s Sabanci University, believed that the government wanted to avoid such images appearing on social media in case there were protests when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the region, around the same time that Twitter had been blocked.
“I think this is just generally an attempt on the part of the AKP government to prevent the spread of these public outrages that are becoming more and more common because the government was of course inefficient in terms of delivering help to the region,” he told The Media Line.
“If the anger escalates and more and more people see footage of people showing outrage then, of course, it’s going to be really a very bad sign for the AKP government.”
The Turkish government imposed a law in 2020 that required social media companies with more than 1 million users to have representatives in the country who could be subjected to investigations.
Twitter agreed to put in a representative after it faced an advertising ban earlier in the year.
“It brings the social media companies under control,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, the senior Turkey research for Human Rights Watch.
She said the temporary blocking of Twitter was a wake-up call to what the government could do, especially with the elections months away.
“It certainly does give a very chilling sign of what the government may be prepared to do with this law to restrict social media and access on a whim,” she said.
Turkey tries to silence anger over earthquake response
NetBlocks said on Thursday that Twitter was restored after the government held talks with the company about disinformation.
Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Omer Fatih Sayan stated that in a video conference with Twitter officials, the government demanded cooperation on disinformation and sensitivity over photos of victims being shared.
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay reportedly earlier said that he learned there were technical problems when questioned about the blocking.
Sinclair-Webb said the government faced outrage after Twitter was blocked and backtracked under pressure.
“There was an outcry immediately,” she said.
Erdogan is expected to face the biggest challenge to his power since he came to office 20 years ago when voters go to the polls in parliamentary and presidential elections that are due by June.
Surveys have shown Erdogan behind several opposition politicians after his popularity declined amid a struggling economy and massive inflation.
Twitter in recent years has been a tool by those angered at officials and the government to criticize them while much of the media has been taken over by Erdogan’s allies.
Anger over the authorities’ response to the earthquake and the perceived lack of preparation could be another topic Erdogan will struggle with while campaigning.
Experts believe part of why there is such a high death toll and so many collapsed buildings is due to structures not being built up to code.
Engineers warned that an amnesty introduced by the Turkish government for unregulated construction could threaten people’s lives.
Geologist Celal Sengor said that corruption played a role in buildings not meeting safety standards.
“The political corruption in Turkey favors the contractors and the state mechanism to check the quality of the buildings have been left to the contractors,” he said.
“If you leave it to the people who build the buildings and then ask them to check the quality of it, it defeats the purpose. You need an independent mechanism to check it. But even the independent mechanism would be perhaps a victim of corruption.”