'Fahrenheit 5651': Turkey blocked 467,011 web addresses in 14 years

Photo: Murad Sezer / theconversation.com

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Turkey blocked 467,011 web addresses between the enactment of the internet law in 2007 and the end of 2020, according to the annual report of the Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD).

The report was named "Fahrenheit 5651: The Incendiary Effect of Censorship," in a reference to the book Fahrenheit 451.

Some 408,808 orders to block access to web addresses were imposed by 764 courts and administrative institutions in the given period, the report shows.

7,500 Twitter accounts, 50,000 tweets, 12,000 YouTube Videos, 8,000 Facebook posts and 6,800 Instagram posts are among the blocked addresses.

In the last year, 58,809 URLs were blocked and 89 percent or 52,185 of them were directly blocked by the Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK).

Some 3,025 web addresses were blocked by courts, judgeships or prosecutors and the rest were blocked by various state institutions, including ministries.

News portals removed 81 percent of the articles that were blocked to access by the authorities. In the previous year, it was 76 percent. (HA/VK)