Coup attempt in Turkey: Twitter service slowed in Turkey

Twitter pointed to "intentional slowing" of its service in Turkey, as reports surfaced that social media was being sidelined during a coup attempt.

San Francisco, Jul 16 : Twitter pointed to “intentional slowing” of its service in Turkey, as reports surfaced that social media was being sidelined during a coup attempt. An @TurkeyBlocks account that said it was mapping censorship in that country tweeted early in the day that it noticed “social media throttling,” particularly Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

Our data indicated a 2 hour period of social media throttling but no evidence of a full internet blackout in #Turkeyhttps://t.co/AIhaytJJTY

— Turkey Blocks (@TurkeyBlocks) July 15, 2016

“We have no reason to think we’ve been fully blocked in #Turkey, but we suspect there is an intentional slowing of our traffic in country,” Twitter said in a message fired off by its global policy team at an @policy account. YouTube, a US-based online video sharing service, said “we are aware of reports that YouTube is down in Turkey, however, our systems seem to be functioning normally.” Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (ALSO READ: Coup attempt in Turkey:  Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeks control after coup attempt in Turkey )

Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have become powerful tools for sharing video of events, often in real time. Turkish troops launched a coup attempt, with soldiers taking to the streets of Ankara and Istanbul. State broadcaster TRT said the military had declared martial law and a curfew, in a statement signed by a group calling itself the “Council for Peace in the Homeland.”