Turkey blocks Twitter at IP level

Turkey seems to have taken further measures to make Twitter inaccessible. Where the social networking site was previously blocked at the DNS level, the IP address has now been made inaccessible. Turkey may also want to block other social networks.

According to researchers, all internet providers in Turkey have made Twitter’s IP address unreachable, The Washington Post reported. The blockade would have been in place from Saturday afternoon, although the Turkish government has not released an official statement about the measures.

The blockade of Twitter’s IP address is presumably set because Turkish internet users succeeded en masse to circumvent the previously set blockade, based on DNS redirects. Google’s alternative DNS servers, among others, were used to access Twitter, although reports appeared on Saturday that these servers have also been blocked.

Despite the blockade, it is still possible to visit the Twitter site via a VPN. In addition, Twitter’s service where a Tweet can be posted via SMS would not have been blocked by the Turkish government. You can also reach Twitter via Tor.

Meanwhile, the Turkish government has asked YouTube to take down some videos in which Prime Minister Erdogan is accused of corruption. If this is not followed, it is possible that YouTube will also be blocked; the Twitter block was put in place after the site refused to remove anti-Erdogan tweets.