Tuesday, October 07, 2014

Turkish president proclaims “I am increasingly against the internet every day”

A very significant and dangerous trend has been accelerating in recent weeks. This trend consists of leaders throughout the globe coming out and blatantly calling for censorship and restrictions on free speech.

Of course, in so-called Western democracies, the leaders have to be more subtle and nuanced in their approach. They can’t just come out and say they hate the internet. We saw this tactic from the UK Conservative Party as of late with its call for the banning of “non-violent” extremism from public discourse. I covered this terrifying plan in my recent post: The UK’s Conservative Party Declares War on YouTube, Twitter, Free Speech and Common Sense.

While that’s how British politicians pitch totalitarianism, their Turkish counterparts don’t seem to have any qualms about just coming out and admitting their disdain for the proliferation of free speech that the internet allows. We learn from the Independent that:

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has defended his government’s efforts to control online speech, telling a press freedom conference: “I am increasingly against the Internet every day.” Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Twitter has quietly learned to censor and ban its users when government ask...
  2. India leads the world in Facebook censorship...
  3. Vietnam’s love-hate affair with the Internet...
  4. Singapore: Escalating restrictions on Internet expression...
  5. Massachusetts student facing terrorism charges for Facebook post...

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