Online forum, Reddit, faced ban in Turkey under its internet censorship law on November 13 evening. However, it did not last long as the ban was lifted a day after.
Telecom Authority of Turkey or TIB confirmed the banning of Reddit under the said law.
Turkey's Law 5651 allows the country to block websites for several possible reasons such as piracy, terrorism threats and pornography. It was enacted in 2007 which gave the TIB the power to block certain websites and contents on the world wide web without needing to receive any authorization for the country's government offices and courts.
"After technical analysis and legal consideration based on the Law Nr. 5651, ADMINISTRATION MEASURE has been taken for this website (reddit.com) according to Decision Nr. 490.05.01.2015.-252804 dated 13/11/2015 of the Presidency of Telecommunication and Communication," said the TIB in the statement regarding Reddit's block.
Last year saw further expansions and amendments to the country's internet censorship law. In fact, many residents from Ankara and Istanbul protested in the streets which were met by police officers with riot gear, tear gas and rubber bullets in response to the law.
Amidst the censorship, Turkish users were able to reach the site through other means such as using virtual private networks or browsing the internet using Tor.
According to TechTimes, a user confirmed that Reddit was blocked at the DNS level. Therefore users can still access the website through the use of another DNS server not located within Turkey such as Google DNS Servers at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
It can be recalled that social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook and Youtube were once banned in the country, as well, but were later on lifted. However, photo sharing website, Imgur is still banned in the country.
What do you think of Turkey's move to ban Reddit, then lift the said ban a day after?
