New Internet Censorship Plans Lead To Protests In Turkey

from the don't-touch-my-internet dept

Mon, May 16th 2011 9:57pm — Mike Masnick

We've discussed in the past how out of touch the bureaucracy is in Turkey when it comes to censoring the internet. Over the past few years, we've seen Turkey ban (repeatedly) various Google sites, with YouTube frequently being blocked across the board over a single childish video. Bureaucrats have defended the blocks, claiming that it's about "respect" and they're not worried about how others feel about it. Yet, as the government has announced plans for further censorship, in the form of filters and restrictions on domains, thousands are apparently taking to the streets to protest, speaking out against such attempts. The government is trying to play down the new efforts, claiming they're not really about censorship, and will be voluntary, but when asked how that fit with bans on certain domain names (e.g., you cannot have a domain name with the word "blonde" in it), the Turkish regulator (BTK) just sent the Wall Street Journal reporter "an email with a dozen of the rudest words in the Turkish lexicon, without comment or explanation." Well, that clears it right up, then.

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Filed Under: censorship, free speech, turkey

14 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 16 May 2011 @ 11:15pm

This strikes me as a particularly stupid time in history to try introducing new restrictions on speech in an otherwise peaceful middle eastern country.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 May 2011 @ 11:57pm

first they came for a dozen of the rudest turkish words and i didn't speak out because i wasn't a turkey
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Mehmeh, 17 May 2011 @ 12:17am

Turkey not ready for EU?
More fuel for those who say that Turkey is clearly not ready for entry into the European Union.
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Ena, 17 May 2011 @ 12:40am

Re: Turkey not ready for EU?
Well, EU is trying to bring a great wall of EU firewall on internet, so who is ready for what ?
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Angry Puppy (profile), 17 May 2011 @ 12:44am

Naughty Turkish Words
Let me guess...the first dirty word is Freedom?
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FuzzyDuck, 17 May 2011 @ 1:05am

Re: Re: Turkey not ready for EU?
I agree, and I would even say that the EU countries are pretty hypocritical when it comes to dealing with Turkey anyway. I just said it will be used by those who oppose Turkish membership.

Besides I don't think too many EU countries have gone this far down the road of censorship. For instance, none has banned YouTube because it contained a video that they considered insulting.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 May 2011 @ 1:24am

Blonde hair is illegal in Turkey? Hmm... On the one hand, no more dumb blonde jokes. On the other hand, no more Marilyn Monroe.
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chuck, 17 May 2011 @ 5:21am

well, guess if I want those Turkish eyeballs I will have to change my site to "Brunettes on Blacks"
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CK (profile), 17 May 2011 @ 7:12am

Constantinople
is Istanbul, now Constantinople. Why did Constantinople get the works? That's nobody's business but the Turks.

But it's always good to see civil disobedience against censorship.
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SilverWolf, 17 May 2011 @ 1:54pm

There's no cencorship
People who helded meeting only want porn.. You can check pictures from meeting..
http://pornomadokunma.blogspot.com/ They only want Porn.. You can read plecards (posters) they carried.. 'DONT TOUCH MY PORN' 'I like porn..' 'All we are porno lovers..' I think these kind of posters enough to understand those peoples aims..
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SilverWolf, 17 May 2011 @ 1:57pm

Re:
Nonsense.. There are hundreds of blonde women here.. Dont belive those stupid news..
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techflaws.org (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 2:45am

Re: There's no cencorship
So what? And who are you or your government for that matter to prohibit people from watching porn?
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Anonymous Coward, 18 May 2011 @ 10:45am

Re: Re: There's no cencorship
actually no one's banning porn. it brings four different filter profiles that can be activated by user, if users feel the need and filter profiles can be deactivated any time by user.standard profile has no limitations other than occasional unnecessary site blocking of youtube and the likes. but filters and site blocking is two different issue.
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techflaws.org (profile), 19 May 2011 @ 12:17am

Re: Re: Re: There's no cencorship
Both of which have the same effect: someone else abritrarily telling people what they are allowed to see or not.
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