Fighting Turkey's Twitter Ban With DNS Graffiti

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A Turkish boy walks under electoral flags in a street of Istanbul, on March 21, 2014, ten days ahead of Turkish local elections. Turkey's combative prime minister warned March 21, 2014, that he would eradicate Twitter in the wake of damaging allegations of corruption in his inner circle that have spread across social networks in recent weeks.

Image: Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images

By Megan Hess2014-03-21 14:13:31 UTC

When Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he wold eradicate Twitter, he wasn't joking.

The Prime Minister's office issued a statement on Thursday stating that Turkish officials had "no option" other than to ban the service, which had been used to release damaging information about him. But the edict was met with controversy and retaliation, both from Turkish citizens and Turkey's elite, including its president. The Turkish local elections are only ten days away.

See also: Dear Dictators: Yes, Please Try to Block Twitter

On a typical day, Turkey ranks No. 8 in active users worldwide, and the country's 10 million Twitter users would not be silenced. Since the country's Twitter ban seems to be enabled by a simple DNS block, people are finding ways to circumnavigate the ban, from sending tweets via SMS to changing their DNS to using a VPN or Tor.

Thursday evening into Friday, graffiti began covering the walls in Istanbul to help people access blocked Twitter.

But the instructions for changing the DNS weren't confined to the walls.

The ban in Turkey coincides with the service's eighth birthday on Friday.

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Topics: turkey, Twitter, US & World, World