Tools that allow Twitter to bypass the Twitter and gain access to the social network.
Indicative is that, one of these tools, the Tor software which anonymizes the electronic addresses of computers and “smart» devices, saw its usage almost double in Turkey within just about 24 hours after the «banning» of the social networking platform. Thus, connections via Tor from the other side of the Aegean had reached up to 40,000 yesterday, from 24,000 before the implementation of the ban.
Even though effective, Tor is considered a relatively technically complex solution to bypass the «block» that Turkish providers have activated, under orders from the central Telecommunications Authority. Therefore, more users seem to turn to the solution of virtual private networks (VPN), through which the «traces» of the internet connection are «camouflaged», which appears to originate from another country.
According to the technology site Ars Technica, VPN applications for «smart» Android and iOS devices are experiencing explosive growth in Turkey, resulting in several of them now being listed among the apps with the most installations, both in Apple's online store and in Google's. A notable case is the VPN app Hotspot Shield, whose usage surged by 33,000% within just 24 hours.
Anyway, over the weekend the Turkish government found a «cure» to a fairly simple method that many users seemed to have resorted to, by changing the settings on their router so that they connect to Google's public and free DNS servers (and from there to Twitter), and not to the blocked DNS servers of their providers in Turkey. A solution that now no longer works, as Twitter is now blocked at the IP level.
This move leads some analysts to predict that the ability to send and receive Tweets via simple SMS – a feature that Twitter itself proposed through its official account to its members in Turkey, so that they can continue using the social network, and which, at least for now, still works.
Even if this development occurs, nevertheless, experts claim that, thanks to the other tools, it is technically impossible for the Turkish government to cut users off from the social network. Because’ they consider that, instead of a fireworks display, the decision to «root out Twitter» could end in a disastrous failure for Erdogan.
