Internet censorship in Turkey
It’s pretty pathetic that Turkey still censors the internet, banning YouTube or anything else for that matter. A true democracy allows people to decide for themselves what they themselves want to watch or read. If one does not want to watch or read something, the individual should decide for themselves. In this news article on Turkey, it states that some 5,000 internet sites are banned. How ridiculous! Just like China and its internet censorship. Now it seems that protesters in Istanbul, some 2,000 of them are out in the streets protesting against internet censorship. Granted, my place of employment bans YouTube but that’s because if they didn’t, we’d all be watching amusing videos all day on YouTube and not doing any work. But we still have the choice, if we want, when at home, or from an iPhone or at an internet café to watch YouTube videos all day and all night long if we have the time. This is the modern world.
“ISTANBUL: Over 2,000 protesters marched in Turkey’s largest city Istanbul against strict internet censorship in the country.
The protesters were demanding that a law preventing access to over 5,000 internet sites banned in Turkey be repealed.
They chanted slogans Saturday for removing the ban on video-sharing website YouTube and against the transportation minister, whose ministry is responsible for website bans, Xinhua reported.
“Don’t touch the internet, pull away your hand,” the protesters shouted.
The protest was organised by the Common Platform Against Internet Censorship, a platform of over 50 non-governmental organisations.
There was always dissatisfaction with internet censorship, but this was the first time people poured out into the streets, Ozgur Uckan of Bilgi University, one of the organisers of the rally, said.
There are about 30 million internet users in Turkey, which has a total population of 70 million.”
