Batman, The City, Sues Over Batman, The Movie

Mon, Oct 27th 2008 11:32am

Filed Under:
bans, blogs, turkey

Companies:
google

46 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Perhaps Turkey Should Just Ban The Entire Internet

from the adding-another-one dept

It would appear that the Turkish government and courts are a bit trigger happy when it comes to flat-out banning websites for almost no reason at all. In the past, we've reported on Turkish bans on YouTube, Slide, Wordpress.com and Google Groups. Now, via Slashdot, we see that a Turkish court has banned all of Google's Blogger service including all of the blogs hosted at blogspot.com. Unlike the bans of the other sites, which happened after people who were offended by content found on each complained, it appears that the Blogger ban was due to a Turkish TV service, Digiturk, which was upset that some Blogger users were posting links to unauthorized streams of Turkish football matches.

Yes, you read that correctly. Because a few bloggers had linked to (not even hosted) some unauthorized streams of a sporting event, Digiturk was able to ban all of Blogger. At this point, you have to wonder why Turkey allows the internet at all.

(Mis)Uses of Technology

Fri, Sep 19th 2008 9:35am

Filed Under:
adnan oktar, creationism, darwinism, richard dawkins, turkey

53 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Turkey Bans Richard Dawkins' Website, Because It Offends A Creationist

from the why-not-just-ban-the-internet? dept

We already know that Turkish officials have a pretty quick trigger finger when it comes to banning certain websites. They've banned YouTube multiple times due to videos they found offensive, and then banned Slide, a multimedia hosting company as well. Still, it's a bit surprising to discover that now they've banned the website of Richard Dawkins after a Turkish creationist complained that the site had insulted him. Apparently, this guy, Adnan Oktar, has become quite successful at getting sites blocked in Turkey. In the past, he also got Wordpress.com and Google Groups blocked after he became upset at content found on both of those sites. And, even better, he claims he's not against free speech, he's just against insults. And, apparently, anyone who disagrees with him is insulting.

Politics

Tue, Mar 25th 2008 1:39am

Filed Under:
bans, content, streisand effect, turkey

Companies:
slide, youtube

12 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Turkish Officials Never Learn: Ban Slide Along With YouTube

from the the-definition-of-insanity dept

It would appear that Turkish officials don't seem to understand quite how the internet works these days -- despite having received quite a few lessons already. After all, this is the country that has banned YouTube for a sophomoric video making fun of the country's founder. It's the type of silly video no one would pay attention to... until Turkey decided to block access to all of YouTube because of it. Then, of course, this silly little video that no one cared about was seen everywhere. Eventually Turkey lifted the ban, but having learned nothing put the ban back in place not just once, but two more times. Each time, it provided much more attention to the silly pointless videos. Apparently, that message has not gotten through to Turkish authorities who have now banned the multimedia hosting site Slide as well. Again, they didn't bother to inform Slide or even ask the company to take down the offending content. They just banned the entire site over some content that very few people had probably seen.

Politics

Mon, Jan 21st 2008 4:41am

Filed Under:
ban, turkey, youtube

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Third Time's A Charm For Turkish YouTube Ban? Maybe This Time The Video Will REALLY Disappear

from the definition-of-insanity dept

The Associated Press is reporting that a Turkish court has banned YouTube access from the country for the second time, once again for a video that "insults" the country's founder. It's actually the third (not second) time a court has banned YouTube for the same reason. The first was back in March, though the ban was lifted a few days later. The second time was back in September, though apparently the ban was never implemented. This time, however, the full ban is in place again. You would think, given the earlier experiences with these "bans" that clearly did not stop such videos from getting online the courts might realize what a silly idea it is to ban all of YouTube. You might even think that the Turkish courts would realize that every time they ban YouTube for one of these silly immature videos, those videos suddenly gain a much broader worldwide audience. However, it appears that such things haven't occurred to the judges there. Perhaps they really think that banning YouTube will solve the problem this time and no one will ever speak ill of Turkey's founder ever again.

(Mis)Uses of Technology

Wed, Sep 19th 2007 9:16am

Filed Under:
bans, streisand effect, turkey

Companies:
youtube