Here’s why
Turkish officials have said that “an administrative measure” has been taken although Turkish media has said the authorities had only asked Wikipedia to remove content only supporting “terror.”
This is nothing new for Turkey as over the years they have blocked Twitter, YouTube, Facebook along with various anti-government sites, normally being blocked during protests or after a terror attack has occurred.
Turkey’s information and Communication Technologies Authority was quoted to say: “After technical analysis and legal consideration based on the Law Nr. 5651 [governing the internet], an administrative measure has been taken for this website.”
The Turkey Blocks monitoring group has said that Wikipedia was blacked out from 05:00 GMT Saturday. They posted their repsonse on
Twitter:
Confirmed: All editions of the #Wikipediaonline encyclopedia blocked in #Turkey as of 8:00AM local timehttps://t.co/ybFolRmsOs pic.twitter.com/hI9tn4bHe5
— Turkey Blocks (@TurkeyBlocks) April 29, 2017
Turkish newspaper the Hurriyet had reported that Wikipedia was asked to remove content “supporting Terror” by certain writers, as Wikipedia had not responded to Turkey’s demands the ban was implemented as a result, claimed Hurriyet newspaper.
It is further thought that over the next few days a court ruling could back the ban.
Turkey now ranks 155 out of 180 in the press freedom index of the watchdog, Reporters without Borders.
Leave a Comment