Turkey on Saturday blocked all access inside the country to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the communications agency said, in the latest restriction on a popular website to hit Turkish users.
Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority said it had implemented the ban on wikipedia.org, without making clear the reason for the move.
Turkish media said that the ban was imposed because Wikipedia had failed to remove content promoting terror and also linking Turkey with terror groups.
There was no indication as to when the ban might be removed, with a formal court order expected to follow in the next days.
A block affecting all language editions of the website in Turkey was detected from 0500 GMT after an administrative order by the Turkish authorities, the Turkey Blocks monitoring group, which watches internet restrictions in the country, said in a statement.
Residents in Istanbul were Saturday morning unable to access any pages of Wikipedia without using a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
“The loss of availability is consistent with internet filters used to censor content in the country,” Turkey Blocks said. The BTK confirmed the ban in a statement but gave no details.
