Twitter battle in Turkey heats up, spreads to YouTube -- reports

"rsid":"cbsicnetglobalsite","pagetype":"article","siteid":1,"assetguid":"5d199690-57d2-4faf-b351-ae1eeb57e29c","assettitle":"","assettype":"content_article","authorid":"7c0b76f8-8176-11e2-9d12-0018fe8a00b0","author":"cnet news staff","topicguid":"1c1356b9-c387-11e2-8208-0291187b029a","topic":"internet","topicbrcrm":"internet","sitetype":"responsive web","devicetype":"desktop","pgnbr":"1","ednm":"us","sect":"news"

View the Original article

Twitter dark in Turkey after PM's threat to 'wipe out' the service

Twitter is inaccessible in Turkey.

(Credit:Bulent Kilic/AFP/GettyImages)

Twitter reportedly went offline in Turkey on Thursday, just hours after the country's prime minister threatened to eradicate the social network from the country in the wake of allegations of corruption spread across social networks.

"We will wipe out Twitter. I don't care what the international community says," premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday during an election rally in the western province of Bursa.

"They will see the Turkish republic's strength," he added, according to the AFP news agency.

Twitter said Thursday that it was looking into reports that its microblogging service had already been banned in that nation. The social network advised users in Turkey that they could still send tweets by using SMS:

Turkish users: you can send Tweets using SMS. Avea and Vodafone text START to 2444. Turkcell text START to 2555.

— Policy (

View the Original article

Daily Roundup: Turkey bans Twitter, Peter Molyneux talks VR and more!

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

View the Original article

Turkey bans Twitter but users can still tweet via SMS

Turkey has joined the ranks of Iran, Egypt and others who have blocked access to Twitter at one point or another. Now, anyone in Turkey who tries to go to the website is redirected to a statement from the country's telecommunications regulator instead. A Turkish journalist told The Daily Dot that the outage started just after Thursday midnight and gradually spread out, depending on users' internet providers. It looks like the government didn't block the microblogging site's SMS service, though, because Twitter's Policy account just reminded Avea and Vodafone users that they can text START to 2444, while Turkcell subscribers can text START to 2555. But, why was Twitter banned in Turkey in the first place? Well, that's because some users posted voice recordings and documents, which allegedly reveal corruption within the Turkish prime minister's inner circle -- and that sure didn't sit well with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Hours before the blackout, Prime Minister Erdoğan threatened to shut Twitter down while speaking at a political rally to campaign for the March 30th local elections. He claimed the accusations are merely a smear campaign by his opponents and even dismissed other countries' criticisms: "The international community can say this, can say that. I don't care at all. Everyone will see how powerful the Republic of Turkey is." Erdogan's office later explained that Twitter was blocked in the country, because it failed take down the offending links after being issued four court orders. Considering the prime minister called social media "the worst menace to society" in the past, though, this development is not surprising in the least.

View the Original article

Lights! Neurons! Action! Binge-drinking lab rats go cold turkey

A new study using light to target and stimulate specific neurons in lab rats trained to drink much the way human binge-drinkers do finds the rodents "flat out stopped drinking."

View the Original article