Updated: Slide, the San Francisco-based widget company has joined a very special list of web companies that have been banned by the Republic of Turkey for (according to Slide blog) what the local government calls “harboring pictures and articles that are considered to be insulting to Ataturk,” founder of the republic. It is not clear what are those articles and photos that are insulting
Slide spokeswoman tells us that they have been in touch with the Turkish Government and are trying to resolve this situation, but hasn’t received any response.
Slide isn’t the only company that has been blocked by Turkey. Automattic’s WordPress.com is also blocked by Turkey. Several countries including Pakistan, China and UAE have blocked or are blocking popular Web services such as YouTube, Facebook and MySpace.
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12:56 PM PT
[...] Note to Slide users in Turkey | Vía: GigaOM. ← Anterior | Inicio Comparte esta anotación [...]
4:48 PM PT
[...] Widget Maker Slide banned in Turkey - GigaOM.com [...]
3 comments so far
10:55 PM PT
Pakistan does not block FB or MySpace. It tried to block YouTube but thats been lifted. Blogger was also banned but I believe thats history too.
11:20 PM PT
Nice post touching on a trend we may not like to think about very much — blocking access is likely to get more and more common around the world. Three quick points. The web is already too much split between US (the most open place) and the rest of the world. The blocking trend pushes us further in this direction. Second, it is difficult to come up with strategies to contest blocking decisions because that means dipping one’s toes into foreign legal systems. Ycch! Third, in the future, blocking might be employed for commercial reasons as well as political and moral ones. Och!
5:31 AM PT
Why we’re blocked in Turkey had nothing to do with Ataturk, it was because of an activist called Adnan Oktar:
(link)
Regardless, very China-like internet behaviour for a government seeking entry into the EU.
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