Turkish President Demands Google Delist A Bunch Of Websites Comparing Him To Hitler

from the 'Hitler-was-an-amateur-authoritarian,'-the-president-complained dept

The world's most thin-skinned "leader" is at it again. Perpetually-insulted Turkish super-villain Recip Erdogan is still firing off court orders to Google, expecting the immediate banishment of anything he finds offensive. Dean Jones of the invaluable Shooting the Messenger has more details:

The Turkish tyrant ordered Google [Note: actually, Google only dealt with three Blogspot URLs; the rest is addressed to the Internet in general, I guess.] to delist over 40 URLs including a critical report by The Washington Times, plus an AOL image search for “Adolf Erdoğan,” because they allegedly link to “hurtful, humiliating” images and memes.

[...]

The targeted sites had reported about Erdoğan’s recent crackdown on journalists and other critics of the Turkish government, comparing him to Hitler.

Not helping these comparisons is Erdogan's similar facial structure and his endless vindictive actions against anyone who's hurt his feelings.

Turkish law gives him considerable leeway to do this. Unfortunately, a small handful of countries have extended helping hands rather than middle fingers in response to censorship and/or prosecution demands. It's unknown why the Turkish government thought Google could help it out with an AOL image search, but it's equally unclear why it didn't ask for the delisting of Google's image search, which shows virtually-identical results.

The more someone humors this tyrant, the worse he's going to get. And it certainly doesn't help that Jones' report comes on the heels of the Erdogan's US visit, during which his personal bodyguards beat up American protesters. This prompted a tepid display of disappointment from the US State Department and a much more hot-blooded demand for an apology from the Turkish government US law enforcement daring to interrupt Erdogan's bodyguards while they were beating up US citizens.

The court order [PDF] contains a long list of sites likely worth visiting, if for no other reason than to stock up on Erdogan/Hitler memes to spread around the web. It's the circle of life, as lived by Erdogan and defined by Barbra Streisand. The more takedown notices sent by the Turkish government, the more the images and content spread… leading to more takedowns and more dissemination.

If Erdogan wasn't so completely monomaniacal, he might realize the futility of his overseas efforts and content himself with jailing his constituents. Instead, he keeps engaging in internet turf wars with foreign governments, with very minimal success. ISPs like Google have stated they'll perform selective blocking in response to court orders, but honestly they shouldn't even be doing that. Not for someone like Erdogan -- an extremely powerful lout who appears to be shooting meme history by coming closest to the "literally Hitler" ideal.

Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: censorship, free speech, godwin's law, hitler, insults, recep tayyip erdogan, takedowns, turkey
Companies: google


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2017 @ 11:24am

    Google's own fault.

    Once you start honoring take down orders, this is the inevitable result.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2017 @ 12:09pm

      Re: Google's own fault.

      I mean, at $150,000 per URL it would only take 140,000 URLs to eliminate their annual net income. Or alternatively, 600,000 URLs to eat up the entirety of google's yearly revenue. I can guarantee the number of infringing URLs in Google's index is several orders of magnitude higher than that. Heck, I would be very willing to bet the number of new infringing URLs added to google's index every year is orders of magnitude higher than that.

      So sure, it's Google's fault that they would rather remain in business.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      madasahatter (profile), 24 May 2017 @ 3:13pm

      Re: Google's own fault.

      If it is in response to a US court order then they have no choice. The onus then is on the court.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2017 @ 11:31am

    obviously, the truth hurts!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2017 @ 2:17pm

      Re:

      In mother Turkey the Caecar of Rûm gets the people he deserves! But as with all dictatorships, the rest of the world... They hurt.

      For the likes of Erdogan it is better to become insular and despotic in constant paranoia of foreign and domestic enemies created by nationalistic divisive rhetorics, than facing life after politics! His big idol, Abdul "the great assassin" Hamid II, would be proud.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Baron von Robber, 24 May 2017 @ 11:47am

    Next thing you know, he'll demand delisting of sites that comment on his name, Recip Adolf Erdogan Hitler!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    DV Henkel-Wallace (profile), 24 May 2017 @ 12:35pm

    Please list the sites

    I'm sure that google will not comply, since they are evil and do not believe in justice.

    So if you would list the sites we can be careful not to go to them. If we didnt' know we might accidentally visit them.

    In fact we can post the list on our own pages to make sure everybody knows where not to go.

    Thanks for your help!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Regret, 24 May 2017 @ 1:12pm

    I'm confused

    Is he Hitler or Gollum?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    My_Name_Here, 24 May 2017 @ 1:42pm

    Actually, I think it's the ghost of Hitler asking, he doesn't want to get compared to this tin pot dictator!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2017 @ 6:32pm

      Re:

      Fake nick again. The real My_Name_Here is a fan of authoritarians like Erdogan.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    ECA (profile), 24 May 2017 @ 2:01pm

    rIGHT??? to forget??

    Im sorry I stepped on your Dog...
    STOMP STOMP STOMP...

    Forget it. I will get you another..
    STOMP..
    It never happened..

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2017 @ 2:58pm

    Hitler hates being conpared to this idiot.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      David, 25 May 2017 @ 12:22am

      Re:

      Well, Mike states "Not helping these comparisons is Erdogan's similar facial structure and his endless vindictive actions against anyone who's hurt his feelings.". But I don't think this is really evoking a lot of Hitler rather than Erdoğan: Hitler was more into megalomania instead of insecurity regarding his own person and agenda.

      Admittedly, the consequences are not all that much different.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Ministry Of Truth, 27 May 2017 @ 3:50am

        Re: Re: Erdogan's Megalomania

        Erdogan has built himself the world's largest presidential palace, a $615 million, 1,150 room monstrosity on 50 acres, and is widely regarded as a megalomaniac. WTF makes you think Erdogan isn't the very definition of megalomania?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    madasahatter (profile), 24 May 2017 @ 3:14pm

    Who?

    Being compared to Adolf is a step up for this spawn of Satan.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Ryunosuke (profile), 24 May 2017 @ 7:22pm

    not saying Erdorgan IS Hitler... but.... if it walks like a goose and all that....

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2017 @ 9:36am

    The world's most thin-skinned "leader" is at it again.

    I don't think that Erdogan has a clear claim to that title.

    I can think of at least three others who are contenders.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2017 @ 10:12am

      Re:

      History is filled with thin-skinned leaders and arguably many dictators are far worse. It is merely the way he reacts that is so amazingly crazy. While most dictators use the same rhetorics and use same or worse laws, the way Erdogan is approaching turks living abroad is what makes him such a target.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.