Don’t kid yourselves, the EU and Obama would love to do the very same thing as well.
Turkish activists brace for Internet censorship
In Turkey, a new Internet censorship law is taking aim at digital dissent. The law has been met with fierce criticism. It could mean the end for one group of online activists that report on opposition protests.
On a historic thoroughfare in central Istanbul, demonstrators battled riot police and tear gas last week in protest of a Turkey’s new, internationally criticized internet law.
At a sleepy Internet cafe blocks away, one of Turkey’s leading Internet activists sat with tea in hand, wondering if the struggle was already lost. Hunched over an iPhone as he shifts through updates from the protest, Ergin – he no longer gives his real name – is founder of one of Turkey’s largest “alternative” news sites.
Known as Otekilerin Postasi, or “The Other’s Post,” Ergin’s network of volunteer activists provide detailed, minute-by-minute accounts of protests throughout Turkey, and is followed by tens of thousands of people on Twitter and Facebook.
Internet in the cross hairs
It is also followed closely by government authorities, who have pressured Facebook to close the group’s account seven times – a practice that started after it gained over a million followers during Turkey’s wave of mass anti-government demonstrations last year.