Major Internet Censorship Bill Passes In Turkey 104
First time accepted submitter maratumba writes to explain a bill in Turkey that extends what are already hefty Internet curbs in place under a controversial 2007 law that Earned Turkey equal ranking with China as the world's biggest web censor according to a Google Transparency report published in December. The text notably permits a government agency, the Telecommunications Communications Presidency (TIB), to block Access to websites without court authorization if they are deemed to violate privacy or with content Seen as 'insulting.' Erdogan, Turkey's all-powerful leader since 2003, is openly suspicious of the Internet, branding Twitter a 'menace' for being Utilized in organisation of mass nationwide protests in June in which six people died and thousands were injured."
GO FUCK YOURSELF DICE (Score:2, Interesting)
FUCK SLASHBETA
Turkey is heading in a very bad direction (Score:4, Interesting)
I think Erdogan and his so-called "moderate Islamist" party, the AKP, are fast heading for totalitarian rule. I can't imagine the Euros accepting Turkey into their club under these circumstances. Turkey has more journalists in jail than anybody. It is now illegal for medical personnel to give medical attention to people who were injured while demonstrating against the government. And now this - Turkey is joining China, Iran, North Korea and other heavy-handed countries in clamping down on the Internet.
Meanwhile, another group of Islamists loyal to an expatriate named Fetullah Gulen who is resident in the US and is widely believed to be a CIA asset, heretofore loyal to Erdogan and the AKP, has apparently turned on them, possibly at the behest of Gulen's US hosts. These two groups of Islamists, both equally reprehensible, are now fighting it out to see in which wrong direction Turkey will head.
And the lingering rump of secularists on the political left are left to watch the Islamist infighting. They are increasingly irrelevant.