This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Die Türkei sperrt tausende ausländische Webseiten
Following the entering into force in November 2007 of the Turkish Law No. 5651 entitled Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Suppression of Crimes Committed by means of Such Publication, a large number of websites have been blocked in Turkey.
According to Dr. Yaman Akdeniz, Founder and Director of Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK), there are at present more than 6000 websites blocked in Turkey including known sites such as YouTube, WordPress, GoogleGroups and Sites, DailyMotion and others. Some of the sites are blocked by court orders while most of them are blocked by administrative blocking orders issued by the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TIB).
Some websites are blocked because they are considered obscene, others for involving child abuse and sexual exploitation, gambling, betting, prostitution and others for being considered as related to crimes committed against Atatürk.
Part of the websites has been blocked by courts although the reasons for blocking them were outside the scope of Law No. 5651. The website blocking can also occur in relation to intellectual property and websites such as The Pirate Bay or MegaUpload are constantly blocked in Turkey. Myspace has been recently blocked and, for a temporary period of time even Farmville, the game offered by Zynga.com through Facebook was also blocked based on an administrative decision because Zynga promotes gambling through some of its social games. Two other sites related to the largest gay community in Turkey were blocked the same day and it seems the sites intend to challenge the order.
Since May 2009, TIB has decided not to publish any statistics or details related to the websites blocked on the basis of Law No. 5651 which as Dr. Akdeniz says is "a step backwards and in the absence of information, openness, and transparency".
From Farmville to Gayville, Internet censorship continues in Turkey
(4.10.2009)
http://cyberlaw.org.uk/2009/10/04/from-farmville-to-gayville-internet-...
At least 6000 websites censored from Turkey (22.09.2009)
http://cyberlaw.org.uk/2009/09/22/at-least-6000-websites-censored-from...
Unblock The Banned Websites In Turkey Petition (28.09.2009)
http://www.besthostingservices.net/215/unblock-the-banned-websites-in-...
EDRi-gram: Turkey: Another blocking order against YouTube (3.12.2008)
http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number6.23/youtube-turkey-blocked-novemb...