Turkey’s Questionable Web Censorship Law
The Turkish Internet Censorship program lashed out again on November 13 by banning Reddit and blocking Turkey’s citizens from accessing the website. No official reasons were given for banning the website, but many speculated that it was a result of the Telecom Authority of Turkey. This entity does have the power to ban websites under the Internet Law Censorship No. 5651 since 2007. They can block any website deemed illegal or unsafe whether it contains pirated material, pornography, or terrorist activity.
The Telecom Authority of Turkey did finally manage to speak out and confirm the block in their statement: “After technical analysis and legal consideration based on the Law Nr. 5651, ADMINISTRATION MEASURE has been taken from this website (reddit.com) according to Decision Nr. 490.05.01.2015.-252804 dated 13/11/2015 of the Presidency of Telecommunication and Communication.”
This isn’t the first time Turkey has blocked or censored social media as we’ve covered numerous stories where Turkey has blocked social networking websites for sharing news about bombings or other explosive and controversial news content. In 2011 Turkey blocked 3700 websites alone, and in 2014, internet censorship lead to live protests leading to riots and police intervention. However, despite all of these cases of censorship, every user using a VPN like TorGuard VPN has been able to access content regardless of restrictions. A VPN encrypts and masks an IP address through the access of a remote server by a virtual tunnel.
TorGuard powers one of the most effective double-layered security approaches for users in censored countries like China and Turkey. By integrating a Stealth proxy within a Stealth VPN service, users can browse, stream, and use their internet without any reproach of deep packet inspection. When using TorGuard VPN, traffic is encrypted, the IP is masked, and the presence of an active VPN is invisible.
While Reddit is active in Turkey as of right now (Imgur is still banned), there is no guarantee that it always will be. Restrictions are tightening, and if Turkey follows the suit of some countries, entire websites like Google can be blocked and content may start getting permanently blocked altogether.
