Turkey’s Ban Record! Number of Access Blocked Websites in 3 Months is Jaw-dropping
Turkey’s Ban Record! Number of Access Blocked Websites in 3 Months is Jaw-dropping
The number of blocked websites in Turkey is astonishing. BTK, TFF and TIB blocked access to a record number of websites.
Interesting headline on this topic: The number of access bans in Turkey is increasing every day. This situation, which has been on the country’s agenda for a while due to the restriction of Instagram, continues with the recent blocking of Roblox. But these are only the ones we know.
Did you know that there are more than one million websites and domains in Turkey that have been blocked for different reasons? Moreover, this number does not show the total number of blocked sites in Turkey, but only the sites blocked in the first three months of 2024. Here are the details!
Turkey blocked access to more than a million websites in the first three months of 2024
According to reports by the Freedom of Expression Association of Turkey, 1,043,312 websites and domain names were blocked in the first three months of 2024, with a total of 892,951 different decisions issued by 833 different institutions and judgeships. Moreover, this number does not include those blocked after April 1, 2024.
When we look at the source of the bans, we see that they were imposed by the Turkish Football Federation, the Telecommunications Communication Presidency and the Information and Communication Technologies Authority. Of course, a significant number of these sites were blocked for criminal and illegal activities.
However, there is no doubt that there are decisions that restrict freedom of expression, just like the Instagram ban. For example, Wattpad, which has a considerable audience in our country and has led to the emergence of famous authors, was banned a while ago.
Freedom of expression is undoubtedly one of the most important rights we have. Unfortunately, we have been facing decisions violating this right for some time now. For now, we do not know when the bans that cause this situation will be lifted.
