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March 24, 2014

Turkish Official: 'Turks Can't Handle Porn So We Banned Twitter'

TURKEY—In a remark likely to be met by most Turkish citizens with the scorn it deserves, a senior member of the country's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has clarified the reason behind the government's decision to ban Twitter by explaining, "There is content where photos of women are used in porn through Twitter. Turkish society cannot handle that. It is a matter of perception.” It's just the way it is, insinuated Burhan Kuzu, head of the country's parliamentary constitutional commission. “This is the most important issue for us," he told Al Jazeera on Sunday. "There are insults, swearing and porn about Turkish citizens on Twitter. Some European countries can handle some content as a society while Turkey cannot."  In spite of its sophistication, Turkey has had a complicated relationship with the internet for quite a while. In 2011, as AVN reported at the time, the strategically situated Islamic member of NATO went through a similar bout of censorship spasms—even going so far as to ban YouTube for a period of time—in its perennial attempt to be a democratic nation while maintaining its right to control what its citizens see, hear and say, and since that time, has continued to periodically lurch rightward in terms of censorship of the internet and control of the media. The Twitter escapade is a perfect example of this rightward shift. Since the decision was made to ban the globally popular social network from Turkey late last week, the general assumption has been that base politics was the reason. As Think Progress put it today, "The Turkish government banned Twitter late last week in what most believe was retaliation against the network as users in Turkey were tweeting links to recordings of government officials — including Prime Minister Recap Tayyip ErdoÄŸan — allegedly engaging in corrupt activities." Indeed, despite Kuzu's claim that the ubiquity of porn and swearing on Twitter necessitates Turkey's extreme stance, he also told Al Jezeera that Twitter does "not recognize Turkey and Turkish court verdicts. When a court verdict is given about a complaint, Twitter does not implement it. The issue comes to a point where Turkey says, 'If you do not recognize me, I do not recognize you, either.'" According to the BBC, Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek on Saturday also alluded to noncompliance by Twitter as the reason for the ban, telling the news agency, "The Turkish telecommunications watchdog has made a number of statements saying that they have asked Twitter on a number of occasions to remove some content on the back of court orders and Twitter has been refusing to comply. I don't think any global company, whether it's a media company, whether it's an industrial company, it shouldn't see itself [as being] above the law." The BBC also noted Prime Minister Erdogan's reported anger at the many re-tweets by citizens of the allegations of corruption by his "inner circle," further implicating that as the actual final straw that necessitated the ban, but the reference by Kuzu to the nation's systemic problems with "insults, swearing and porn" is the rationale that will likely provides justification for any long-term censorship. Toward that end, the Turkish government, rather than take a step back over the weekend from its decision to ban Twitter, has doubled down on it by shoring up ways being used by millions of people to access Twitter since the ban. As the Guardian reports, "Turkey has stepped up its efforts to block access to Twitter after many users found ways to flout its ban. Internet service providers in the country are now blocking the addresses used by the site, making it significantly more difficult to get around the restrictions, analysts have said." The move indicates "an escalation in the battle between the Erdogan regime and the social media network," as well as the government's willingness to censor at the ISP level. According to the Washington Post, "Researchers are reporting that Twitter is blocked at the IP level within Turkey. Collin Anderson, an independent researcher who has been following the situation in Turkey, said he saw the ban roll out over the course of two hours Saturday. Beginning around 1 p.m. UTC, his measurements of Turkish ISPs began to report not being able to reach IP addresses associated with Twitter's Web server. 'By 15:00 UTC, no ISP could reach Twitter by IP address any longer.'" Image: A Friday tweet from Twitter.

 
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