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Turkish authorities have blocked access to Twitter, Youtube and Facebook

Webster6

By Webster6
in Off-Topic General

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Webster6 Canucks Prospect

Webster6

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Turkish authorities have blocked access to Twitter, Youtube and Facebook over the publication of photos published on the three social media platforms, showing a prosecutor who was taken hostage by militants in Istanbul last week.

Turkish authorities have blocked access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube over their initial refusal to remove photos of a prosecutor who was taken hostage by militants in Istanbul, but the ban was revoked as all three social media platforms complied with a court order after eight hours.

A recent court ruling seen by daily Hürriyet ordered authorities to block a total of 166 websites that published the controversial photos. Beside the world's largest social media websites in the list, there are also specific links to the stories published by Turkish newspapers.

The decision, signed by Bekir Altun, the judge at Istanbul’s 1st Criminal Court of Peace, was taken after Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office’s Terror and Organized Crime Investigation Bureau demanded the ban on news and videos.

The decision stated content removal would be implemented and a possible blockage would be put in place if this was not done.

A number of Turkey's leading Internet service providers implemented the ban in the afternoon of April 6, an official confirmed after widespread complaints about access problems to the social media websites.

Speaking to daily Hürriyet, Internet Service Providers Union (ESB) Secretary General Bülent Kent stressed that "the procedure continues" as all service providers are expected to implement the ban immediately.

Tayfun Acarer, the head of the Information and Communications Technologies Authority (BTK), told daily Hürriyet that the ban on Facebook had been lifted after it rapidly complied with the court ruling on April 6.

YouTube.com ran the text of a court ruling on its site saying an "administration measure" had been implemented by the country's telecommunications authority (TIB).

Google said it was working to restore service to the YouTube video-sharing site, which it owns. Twitter also said it was working to restore access for its users.

In the evening hours, ESB Secretary General Kent announced that Twitter had also complied with the ruling and its service will return shortly. At 7 p.m., Kent said YouTube also removed the content that the court deemed illegal, which led to the revocation of the ban on all global social media platforms.

I'm curious about what others think about this is. I'm still trying to formulate an opinion. I'm not sure if the right take on this is absolutely it's censorship, or whether these websites should have been held accountable for actions deemed "illegal" and blocked temporarily. Jumping to shouting censorship would generally have been my primary reaction to this, but this is also a very sensitive issue. Not just stopping Billy Bob Joe from sharing his thoughts and opinions. I'm leaning towards believing this under no circumstance should be allowed by any government at any time for any reason. Still trying to take in all potential circumstances though.

More links:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/11518004/Turkey-blocks-access-to-Facebook-Twitter-and-YouTube.html

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/21/turkey-blocks-twitter-prime-minister

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2014/03/25/turkeys-twitter-ban-shutting-down-technology-or-social-culture/

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thejazz97 Canucks All-Star

thejazz97

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There is a place where a government would feel that enough is enough and feels the need to start dealing with it in a somewhat forceful matter. And that place should be up to each government's discretion - up to a certain point.

As far as this goes, I'm still sitting on the fence on this as to whether this is past that point or not.

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Fox Mulder Canucks Rookie

Fox Mulder

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Maybe it was just a threat to those companies to get them to remove images/videos they deemed illegal. It appears that after they got what they wanted they unblocked everything.

What I wonder is:

Is that legal/illegal in itself?

Is it justifiable/unjustifiable?

Other countries have laws that differ from ours. I'm sure many wouldn't agree with them but does that mean they shouldn't be followed?

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thejazz97 Canucks All-Star

thejazz97

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My issue is that they shut down several prominent lines of communication to everyone, for the behaviors on them from the few.

Yeah, see, that's not the best thing they could have done. They could have blocked the accounts instead of the whole network instead, as well as numerous other options. But then again, it is just Twitter.

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Webster6 Canucks Prospect

Webster6

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Yeah, see, that's not the best thing they could have done. They could have blocked the accounts instead of the whole network instead, as well as numerous other options. But then again, it is just Twitter.

Twitter is probably a more reliable news source than CNN, assuming you're following the right people anyway.

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Webster6 Canucks Prospect

Webster6

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If a government can censor one media service, it can censor them all.

Freedom of speech is a 'all-or-nothing' concept.

This what I believe as well. Unfortunately the free speech we're granted is not quite that, and every country seems to have their own definition on what it is. Scaling from extremely strict, to pretty soft.

This was a legally sanctioned action by the Turkish government. However, is it right that this is legal? I say no. So if this is a no no, then all media censorship whatsoever should be illegal. But when you look at it from that perspective, you realize every country censorship information, just to varying degrees.

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Webster6 Canucks Prospect

Webster6

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Social media is great in many ways, one way it's bad for the world is terrorists. Is isis. They can get their message across much easier.

Those who sacrifice liberty for security, deserve neither. Sure it allows a means of communication between criminals, but if we give up our values in the face of fear, than "terrorism" won. Those values obviously don't mean much if we just hand them over without question.

Should we hypothetically nuke the world all the way up to outlawing forks because you might stab someone's eye out?

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