Social media platforms throttled in Turkey after assassination: watchdog
Access to major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp was restricted for some users in Turkey following the assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey, a watchdog organization says.
Turkey Blocks on Tuesday said access to many social media sites saw a severe slowdown at 11:45 a.m. Eastern (8:45 p.m. local time) on Monday, before coming back up at 9 p.m. Eastern (6 a.m. local time).
Confirmed: Social media slowdown for many users detected in #Turkey after #Russia ambassador shooting broadcast banhttps://t.co/Fga9p84TIq pic.twitter.com/V8jyjWW6mS
— Turkey Blocks (@TurkeyBlocks) December 19, 2016
{mosads}The source of the slowdowns is unclear, but the Turkish government is suspected.
Turkey throttled access to social media to curtail protests and keep people from communicating during a failed coup in July.
Earlier this week, Turkey separately began cracking down on VPNs and the Tor network, which journalists and protesters have been reliant on to circumvent the government shutting down social media and censorship.
