Having a voice online is becoming increasingly difficult for Web users in Turkey, where President Erdogan is ramping up measures to curtail free speech and the media.
Watchdog group Turkey Blocks noted that the Tor anonymity network has now been blocked, following similar tactics last month taken to prevent users from accessing VPN services and some social media sites.
#Tor network blocked in Turkey as government cracks down on #VPN use: technical reporthttps://t.co/2NSqlXnoJn pic.twitter.com/A8mb0RsZT9
— Turkey Blocks (@TurkeyBlocks) December 18, 2016
Unlike previous instances of censorship which were triggered by specific events, it seems like this might just be a move by Erdogan’s government to prevent people from being able to view impartial news or browse the Web without being tracked – both of which set dangerous precedents for citizens in Turkey.
Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and YouTube were blocked last month following the overnight detention of 11 Members of Parliament belonging to the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
In October, access to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive and GitHub was restricted in order to stem the sharing of leaked emails belonging to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak, who is the son-in-law of President Erdogan. The correspondence is believed to expose how Erdogan used his position of power to influence the media and prompt the publishing of select information in pro-government newspapers.
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