Social media throttling in Turkey, 2022-11-13

[wkrp]

From a thread at NTC, reports of throttling of certain sites in Turkey, following an explosion in Istanbul today.

The thread author's initial observations:

• Affected: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube.
• Not affected: Reddit, VKontakte, Telegram.
• Detection is by TLS SNI, but connecting once to an IP address with an affected SNI can cause future connections to that IP address—even without SNI—to be throttled. (Which is different from what happens with SNIs that are simply blocked.)

News article in Turkish: https://www.ahaber.com.tr/gundem/2022/11/13/internet-coktu-mu-neden-yavasladi-internet-hizi-neden-dustu-ne-zaman-duzelecek (archive)

İnternet çöktü mü, neden yavaşladı? İnternet hızı neden düştü, ne zaman düzelecek?

Giriş Tarihi: 13.11.2022 17:40

İNTERNET ÇÖKTÜ MÜ, NEDEN YAVAŞLADI?

İstanbul'un Beyoğlu ilçesindeki Taksim İstiklal Caddesi'nde, saat 16.20 sıralarında patlama meydana geldi.

Olay sonrası bölgeye çok sayıda; polis, ambulans ve itfaiye ekibi sevk edildi.

İstanbul Cumhuriyet Başsavcılığı meydana gelen patlamayla ilgili soruşturma başlatıldığını açıklarken RTÜK, geçici yayın yasağı getirildiğini duyurdu.

Sosyal medya platformlarında bant daraltma uygulaması yapıldı

Öte yandan patlama sonrası ortaya çıkan basın etiğine aykırı görüntüler ve terör içerikleri için ilgili birimlerin talebi üzerine Bilgi Teknolojileri ve İletişim Kurumu (BTK) tarafından, ülke geneli sosyal medya platformları için bant daraltma uygulaması yapıldı.

Is the internet down, why has it slowed down? Why has the internet speed dropped and when will it recover?

Entry Date: 13.11.2022 17:40

DID THE INTERNET CRASH, WHY DID IT SLOW DOWN?

An explosion occurred on Taksim İstiklal Street in Beyoğlu district of Istanbul around 16.20.

After the incident, many police, ambulance and fire brigade teams were dispatched to the area.

Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office announced that an investigation was launched into the explosion, while RTÜK announced a temporary broadcast ban.

Band narrowing was implemented on social media platforms

On the other hand, upon the request of the relevant units, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) implemented band throttling for social media platforms across the country for images and terrorist content that violated press ethics after the explosion.

[wkrp]

I have not found a source with precise times, but apparently the social media throttling has ended after less than a day and the network in Turkey is back to the way it was before.

https://twitter.com/arzugeybulla/status/1592035768356450304 (archive) 2022-11-14 06:04

Twitter and other social media platforms are back to normal in #Turkey after yesterday's throttling by the authorities in the aftermath of the deadly explosion in #Istanbul. Here is how authorities censored media and the internet. https://globalvoices.org/2022/11/13/turkey-throttles-internet-access-following-deadly-explosion-in-istanbul/ for @globalvoices