Erdogan’s Next Target as He Restricts Turkey’s Democracy: The Internet

NYT, Erdogan’s Next Target as He Restricts Turkey’s Democracy: The Internet, 4 Mar 2018 "For seven years, with an unholy blend of the racy and the religious, Mr. [Adnan] Oktar has presented his show daily via satellite, cable and the internet, where he expounds on Islamic creationism, peace and love, often to a studio audience of women in miniskirts and plunging necklines.
"Religious conservatives in the government now say they want to shut him down. But critics say that Mr. Oktar has become a convenient trigger for the government to pursue wide-reaching restrictions on internet content and broadcasters."

Turkey Censorship Allegations

The Conversation, Robots, kittens and Netflix: Turkish curbs on the media reach ludicrous levels, 9 Feb 2018 "Citizens of Turkey have long bypassed existing internet regulations by using VPN (Virtual Private Network) and other methods to get round the blockage of certain websites. The latest draft decree certainly points to a further step towards a dystopian future for Turkish freedom of expression and human rights, but it could also instigate new imaginings for the future of social and digital change." Opinion

Turkey blocks social media

turkeyblocks.org, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WhatsApp shutdown in Turkey

Source: @TurkeyBlocks

also see:

ZDNet, Turkey blocks WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter across the country

Independent, WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and more down in Turkey in apparent internet ban "Turkey Blocks, a website that tracks issues with the internet in Turkey, claimed that web traffic including that for WhatsApp was subject to throttling, where connections are slowed down to the point they are unusable. It claimed that the internet ban was related to the arrest of some political activists the night before the outage went into effect."

Prayers, Pilgrims and Power

BBC World Service, Prayers, Pilgrims and Power "The Imam Reza shrine in the Iranian city of Mashhad is a spectacular complex visited by millions of pilgrims every year. It's also spectacularly wealthy, and part of a huge business empire worth an estimated $20 billion. So the person who runs it has considerable power. Earlier this month that person changed. BBC Persian's Najieh Ghulami, who's from Mashhad, discusses the change of guard and shares memories of the shrine."

The programme also covers other issues relating to this blog, including social media and censorship in Turkey, and Saudi Arabian comedy (which has a social media element).

Imam, cats and social media

Independent, i100, An Imam in Istanbul has opened up his mosque to the city's stray cats, 17 Jan 2016 "Efe is well known in the city for his "good humour and diligence", the Daily Sabah reports - but a video Efe took of a mother cat taking her kittens from the street into the safety of the mosque has given his everyday acts of compassion a global audience."

#direnkahkaha

BBC News, #BBCtrending: The women having a laugh in Turkey  "Women should not laugh in public. So said Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc in a speech on Monday about "moral corruption" in Turkey. "Chastity is so important," he said. "She will not laugh in public."

"His comments have prompted a big backlash from women on social media in Turkey, with thousands posting photos of themselves laughing and smiling on Twitter and Instagram. There have been more than 300,000 tweets using the term "kahkaha" - the Turkish word for "laughter" - and on the hashtags "Resist Laughter" (#direnkahkaha) and "Resist Woman" (#direnkadin)."

Also see IBT,  #DirenKahkaha: Turkish Women in Social Media 'Laugh Protest' against Erdogan's Deputy

The Islamic Sex Cult Supporting Turkey’s Prime Minister

balkanist.net, The Islamic Sex Cult Supporting Turkey’s Prime Minister "Followers of Harun Yahya wear drag make-up and practice a “sexed-up, Disney version of Islam” that helps promote conservative Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s vision of a modern, Muslim Turkey. Step inside this surreal world where religious piety meets psychedelic softcore porn, led by the world’s foremost Islamic creationist."

Turkey’s online censorship just took a sinister Orwellian turn

Turkey’s online censorship just took a sinister Orwellian turn – Quartz "Over the weekend, Google reported that Turkey had intercepted traffic to its public domain name system (DNS) service—part of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly draconian crackdown against the social media networks that are being used to distribute damaging information about him."

Twitter and YouTube bans in Turkey: round-up

I have collected some of the stories associated with Twitter and YouTube bans in Turkey from the past week: 

hurriyetdailynews.com, Turkey widens Internet censorship

hurriyetdailynews.com, Far from succumbing to 'the ban', Twitter usage SOARS in Turkey

BBC News, Turkey Twitter ban is 'a losing battle', expert claims

Guardian, Turkey blocks YouTube amid 'national security' concerns

BBC News, Turkey moves to block YouTube access after 'audio leak'

'After the Protests'

Zeynep Tufekci, NY Times, After the Protests, 19 Mar 2014 "Media in the hands of citizens can rattle regimes. It makes it much harder for rulers to maintain legitimacy by controlling the public sphere. But activists, who have made such effective use of technology to rally supporters, still need to figure out how to convert that energy into greater impact. The point isn’t just to challenge power; it’s to change it."

Twitter in Turkey

NPR, 'We'll Eradicate Twitter,' Turkey's Prime Minister Vows
"Reeling from the anonymous release of audio that seems to implicate him in a corruption scandal, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would ban Twitter, no matter what the international community says."
BBC News, Twitter website 'blocked' in Turkey, 21 Mar 2014  "Some users trying to open the twitter.com website are apparently being redirected to a statement by Turkey's telecommunications regulator."

Turkey unrest and social media

Reuters, Death of Turkish boy hurt in protests triggers fresh unrest, 11 Mar 2014 "Istanbul and Ankara have both seen protests in recent weeks against what demonstrators see as Erdogan's authoritarian reaction to the graft scandal, which has included new laws tightening Internet controls and handing government greater influence over the appointment of judges and prosecutors." social media is driving these protests.

Turkish PM threatens to ban Facebook, YouTube

AP, Turkish PM threatens to ban Facebook, YouTube "Turkey's prime minister has threatened drastic steps to censor the Internet, including shutting down Facebook and YouTube, where audio recordings of his alleged conversations suggesting corruption have been leaked in the past weeks, dealing him a major blow ahead of this."

Turks Protest New Internet Restrictions, in the Streets and Online

Turks Protest New Internet Restrictions, in the Streets and Online - NYTimes.com "Social networks, which have been a source of irritation for the government in recent months as a vehicle for publishing leaks about officials accused of corruption, were soon awash with snapshots and video clips of police firing tear water cannons and tear gas at protesters, who replied by hurling insults and stones at armored police vehicles on Istiklal Street, a popular pedestrian walkway in central Istanbul."

Turkey publishes Islamic Encyclopedia on the internet

World Bulletin, Turkey publishes Islamic Encyclopedia on the internet "The Turkish Religious Affairs Foundation’s Islamic Encyclopedia, arguably one of the most important collections of Islamic knowledge published in contemporary times, is now available on the internet."

'Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen files suit on internet commenter'

hurriyetdaily.com, Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen files suit on internet commenter "Fethullah Gülen has filed a criminal complaint against an internet commenter, who claimed the Islamic scholar was “a CIA agent.”"

'The Last Ottomans are Gathering on Facebook'

Sabah English, The Last Ottomans are Gathering on Facebook "The last 77 members of the Ottoman dynasty, which are spread out throughout a wide geography spanning from the United States to Jordan, are now in communication with one another through a group formed on the popular social networking website Facebook."

'Turkey's first online Islamic sex shop opens'

France24, Turkey's first online Islamic sex shop opens, 21 Oct 2013 "The "Halal Sex Shop" website presents its products as being "entirely safe," and in compliance with Islamic norms."

Citizen Journalist: How Social Media Reveals the Truth in Turkey

Huffington Post, Citizen Journalist: How Social Media Reveals the Truth in Turkey  "After the Arab Spring it would be easy to look at what is happening in Turkey right now, sigh, nod our collective heads and return to scanning our Facebook feed for anything to alleviate the boredom of the daily news. We've seen it all before right? The Military dictatorship overthrown by an unstoppable public passion.

"Only this isn't the same. This is an entirely new beast that is showing where the real democracy lies. It lies in the social media feed - the one we carry with us in our pocket all day long, the one we check on average 14 times a day. Facebook and Twitter have been at the forefront of recent rebellions from Brixton to Egypt, operating as an easy way to mobilise and organise protesters. However, there is another purpose they serve and that is the transmission of the news when the news is biased."

E-government in KSA and elsewhere

alarabiya.net, Saudi Arabia leader nation in e-readiness: U.N. report, 3 Aug 2012 "Saudi Arabia has joined Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in the elite club of 21 nations holding crucial components of e-readiness for effective e-government and various e-services in public and private sectors, according to U.N. study released in Riyadh on Thursday." The survey should be on the UN Public E-Government Survey website, but the August edition doesn't seem to be available at present.