Turkish government blocks access to Reddit – update

The Turkish government has set up a blockade for the popular website Reddit with the help of DNS adjustments. It is not yet clear why Reddit may no longer be visited, but Turkey is blocking access to social networking sites more often.

Users have been reporting the blockade of Reddit in Turkey since Friday. A special government website shows that the website has indeed been blocked; it states that after ‘technical analysis and legal considerations’ it was decided to block the website. Internet users state that the blocking is set at the DNS level, allowing alternative DNS servers, such as Google’s, to be used to visit Reddit again. The government website has confirmed that the measure took effect on Friday, but does not provide information about the method used.

The Turkish government refers to an internet law number 5651, which was introduced in 2007 and allows the Turkish government telecommunications agency to deny access to websites that contain content such as child pornography, drugs, terrorism or illegal downloads. However, critics argue that the law is being used to curtail freedom of expression. There is no need for a judge’s judgment before a website can be blocked.

Because no statement has been released about the blocking, it is not clear why Reddit has been blocked. However, social networking sites have been blocked several times before; for example, after the recent attacks in Turkey, access to sites such as Twitter and Facebook was made impossible, and the websites were blocked several times in the past.

Update, Monday: The blockade has been lifted, according to information from users and the site of the responsible body of the Turkish government.