Earlier this day, Turkey decided to block access to the Wikipedia, citing a law which protects the national security. It seems the actual problem was that the site refused to remove some content that the Turkish government believed was trying to smear their country.
According to what the Turkish Transport said, Maritime Affairs and Communications Ministry, access to the Wikipedia was restricted because this website was hosting articles and comments which claim Turkey was coordinating with the terrorist groups, which they claim is just a part of a smear campaign against the Turkey in this area.
Therefore, the governmental agency has decided to use an administrative order to block Wikipedia, based on the Law 5651, which permits the government to regulate the online content in broadest way possible.
The Wikipedia was asked to remove the content which has upset the Turkish officials, but the has company refused, as you would expect from it. The Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales posted on his Twitter that access to this information is a fundamental human right. “The Turkish people, I will always stand with you and fight for this right,” wrote Wales.
The blockade seems to have been started around 8 AM local time on this Saturday morning, said the monitoring group Turkey Blocks. This is project that has been working to identify and also validate reports of Internet censorship in the Turkey, which says that the noticed loss of traffic was consistent with the “Internet filters used to censor the content in Turkey.”
Over the past few years, Turkey has toughened its stance regarding freedom of speech. The country’s government has decided to block numerous sites over time, including Wikileaks, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Social media was generally blocked around times of social unrest. Furthermore, numerous journalists have been arrested, while others have been imprisoned for expressing an anti-Erdogan stance.
