Social media shows tension of Turkey coup in real time
Social media is playing a growing role helping governments and citizens contend with national emergencies, with the coup attempt in Turkey on Friday the latest example.
Turkey has a history of slowing down Internet services in times of unrest. So residents took to social media Friday to share what they were hearing and seeing. They provided information and expressed shock at the events as they unfolded.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used FaceTime to proclaim to a television station that the uprising would not be successful and to urge people to take to the streets to defend democracy. He could not use state-run national television because it had been seized by forces backing the coup.
Users took to Reddit, the social networking site that allows users to vote on content, in sometimes desperate attempts to keep each other informed after a Turkish military group declared it was in power.
Posts had an air of frustration.One user known as The Roots Crew posted shortly before 7 p.m. ET, "Nationalist TV Channels e.g. Halk TV, Ulusal Kanal have been shut down. They cannot broadcast at the minute.”
The same user posted at about 7:20 p.m. ET, “No information regarding to coup can be found on Turkish Armed Forces’ website.”
Even Twitter seemed to have been affected. Twitter’s global public policy team tweeted at about 6 p.m. ET, “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.”
As of 8:15 p.m. ET Friday, that was the last tweet from that account.
From there began the sharing of information and resources.
Many users posted crudely shot video of their television screens showing developments unfold. One enterprising tech company stepped in to offer its services as posts hinted that residents of Turkey were not able to gain information through traditional means.
The virtual private network, or VPN, TunnelBear offered its services to Reddit users so that people could browse privately for iOS, Android, OS X, PC and Chrome. “To our friends in #Turkey, you now have unlimited data to stay connected with #TunnelBear #coup #TurkeyCoup tunnelbear.com/download."
Some posted video of their TV screens. User @moezbhar posted video the the coup underway,writing, “Video seems to show gunfire towards protesters in #Istanbul amid military coup. #Turkey.”
@Mastergabber posted, “I captured and uploaded this bit from the Sky News live stream showing people in the street under gunfire if you want to share the video in the live thread. Crazy stuff.”
It is not surprising that this sort of sharing would organically evolve in the wake of a national emergency.
"Millions of Americans use social media every day to check in on friends and family, learn about current events and share their experiences," Shayne Adamski, senior manager of digital engagement at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told lawmakers in 2013, according to National Defense magazine.
Government agencies have used social networking sites to keep the public informed in disasters such as the 2011 power outage in San Diego and Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast in 2012.
Active social media users make up 31% of the U.S. population alone, according to SmartInsights.com.