Turkey Still Bans Wikipedia Despite Court's Ruling

Despite Turkey’s high court decision to lift the ban on Wikipedia, the multilingual online encyclopedia is still banned in the country.

The country's Constitutional Court ruled earlier that the ban on Wikipedia violates freedom of speech, yet, the government is still insisting on banning the platform and restricting internet users from reaching it.

The Constitutional Court clearly stated that the ban was a violation to freedom of expression in the Official Gazette and the other court, which ruled the ban should reopen the case after the ruling.

According to an Istanbul-based Freedom of Expression Society’s data, over 245,000 websites have been blocked in Turkey, including Wikipedia that has been banned in 2017, while YouTube and Twitter are also facing temporary blocks.

Critics have accused Ankara of undermining freedom of speech as part of a crackdown following the  failed 2016 coup attempt.

Last August, the European Court of Human Rights granted Turkey two months to present evidence that Wikipedia is a threat to national security.

Following terror attacks and protests in the past, Turkey has temporarily blocked social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, violating human rights standards

Meantime, Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) announced that the ban on sites, including Wikipedia, comes under a law that grants the organisation to block access to any websites thought to cause a national security threat.

It is worth mentioning that Turkey banned the encyclopedia after showing the country's links to terrorist groups like ISIS.