{"id":1470,"date":"2011-06-29T00:53:18","date_gmt":"2011-06-28T21:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/privacy.cyber-rights.org.tr\/?p=1470"},"modified":"2011-06-29T00:53:27","modified_gmt":"2011-06-28T21:53:27","slug":"%e2%80%98eksi-users%e2%80%99-raid-sour-web-freedom-hurriyet-daily-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/privacy.cyber-rights.org.tr\/?p=1470","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ek\u015fi-users\u2019 raid sour web freedom – Hurriyet Daily News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Ek\u015fi-users\u2019 raid sour web freedom – Hurriyet Daily News<\/a>: “\u2018Ek\u015fi-users\u2019 raid sour web freedom<\/p>\n

Sunday, June 26, 2011
\nI\u015eIL E\u011eR\u0130KAVRUK
\nISTANBUL- H\u00fcrriyet Daily News<\/p>\n

A discussion topic last week on the prophet Muhammad caused some tension among the writers of the Ek\u015fi S\u00f6zl\u00fck; according to reports, somebody filed a complaint to the police accusing some writers of insulting the Prophet.<\/p>\n

A discussion topic last week on the prophet Muhammad caused some tension among the writers of the Ek\u015fi S\u00f6zl\u00fck.<\/p>\n

A discussion topic last week on the prophet Muhammad caused some tension among the writers of the Ek\u015fi S\u00f6zl\u00fck.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s Ek\u015fi S\u00f6zl\u00fck (\u2018Sour Dictionary\u2019) has been one of the country\u2019s favorite web repositories of frequently witty, occasionally irreverent user-generated knowledge for the past 12 years. But the country\u2019s largest collaborative discussion platform and hypertext dictionary made headlines last week when 50 of its members were taken in by the police and charged with insulting religion.<\/p>\n

\u2018The police found my IP address and I was suddenly taken in from my home. I was charged for my comments on religion,\u2019 said one of the writers who wanted to remain anonymous.<\/p>\n

A discussion topic last week on the prophet Muhammad caused some tension among the writers of the Ek\u015fi S\u00f6zl\u00fck; according to reports, somebody filed a complaint to the police accusing some writers of insulting the Prophet.<\/p>\n

\u2018Everyone on the site has a nickname and we all write anonymously. Therefore, I might have written casually but I didn\u2019t write anything insulting,\u2019 said the anonymous source.<\/p>\n

The detention sparked varied reactions among the website\u2019s writers and administrators. While some criticized the site \u2018admins\u2019 for giving the police the users\u2019 IP addresses, site officials said not doing so would have been against the law.<\/p>\n

\u2018Some of the writers are furious and have accused us of giving the police their IP address,\u2019 Ek\u015fi S\u00f6zl\u00fck\u2019s founder and owner, Sedat Kapano\u011flu, told the H\u00fcrriyet Daily News this week. \u2018Yet, according to the laws, if we don\u2019t give their IP addresses, it is a crime.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Our writers write their opinions on the web site anonymously, but by taking them in, the police exposed their identity,\u2019 the website\u2019s lawyer Ba\u015fak Purut told the Daily News.<\/p>\n

Witch hunt<\/p>\n

This is not the first time that Ek\u015fi S\u00f6zl\u00fck writers have been taken in by the police \u2013 Kapano\u011flu said he has to testify at least four times a year. But, according to Yaman Akdeniz, a professor who specializes in Internet law, more stringent legal measures must take place before people are taken from their homes on such charges.<\/p>\n

\u2018This could have been done through a notice from the police. The strange thing here is that the police come and take people from their homes as if they are guilty. There needs to be a court decision to take people in like that,\u2019 Akdeniz told the Daily News.<\/p>\n

But such a process is already commonplace, says lawyer G\u00f6khan Ahi who runs Bili\u015fim Hukuk, an online journal of Cyber Law.<\/p>\n

\u2018Whenever there is a complaint, the prosecutors have to investigate it and then work with the police,\u2019 Ahi told the Daily News. \u2018Yet we might question whether we need the same procedure for every case.\u2019<\/p>\n

Akdeniz said the nature of the procedures created fear among the people.<\/p>\n

\u2018We are talking about a crime realized by thought or writing, and this is a right of freedom,\u2019 Akdeniz said. \u2018There are no guns here. Therefore, they should have been more cautious in interfering with people\u2019s private lives. The current procedures only make people more scared.<\/p>\n

\u2018It is like a witch hunt,\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n

What constitutes a Web Crime?<\/p>\n

Since the 2007 passage of article 5651, Turkish law has legally distinguished Internet regulations from those imposed on other media. The law classifies eight violations which can prompt the closing of a website: prostitution, child pornography, gambling, obscenity, promoting suicide, facilitating drug abuse, provision of unapproved substances for health care, and insulting Mustafa Kemal Atat\u00fcrk, modern Turkey\u2019s founder.<\/p>\n

Besides these categories, anyone who thinks that a web site is \u2018suspicious\u2019 can call the police. The owner may then be taken in, or the police may confiscate their computer until the case is resolved.<\/p>\n

Such complaints do not always involve the guilty. \u2018I was taken in by the police just because a teenage guy thought I had blocked his site,\u2019 said another Ek\u015fi S\u00f6zl\u00fck writer, who identifies himself as \u2018Incredible.\u2019 \u2018I found his number, called him and he withdrew his complaint. Still, the police kept my laptop for months because it was then a public case.\u2019<\/p>\n

Currently there are about 1 million banned websites in Turkey. Among the previously blocked and re-opened sites are YouTube, Google Groups, WordPress, and Dailymotion.<\/p>\n

\u2018According to Turkish Law, if a person disrupts the public peace, then it constitutes a crime,\u2019 said Purut. \u2018In the Ek\u015fi S\u00f6zl\u00fck case, there was nothing like that.\u2019<\/p>\n

Still, the case may affect the behavior of Ek\u015fi S\u00f6zl\u00fck\u2019s contributors. \u2018Some people have quit writing for Ek\u015fi S\u00f6zl\u00fck because they don\u2019t want their names in the police files,\u2019 Kapano\u011flu said. \u2018We won\u2019t apply any censorship but we will try and be more cautious for what may happen again.\u2019<\/p>\n

A success story<\/p>\n

Begun as a small community in 1999, Ek\u015fi S\u00f6zl\u00fck (www.eksisozluk.com) has gained substantial popularity, hosting 34,000 registered and anonymous writers who aim to present their material wittily and creatively. The dictionary also prizes entertainment over accuracy.<\/p>\n

Topics covered in the dictionary range from sex to politics to specific people, from the mundane (why mosquitoes never get full) to the profound and personal (what it means to be a black Turk). The mix of user-generated content attracts 8 million hits a month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Ek\u015fi-users\u2019 raid sour web freedom – Hurriyet Daily News: “\u2018Ek\u015fi-users\u2019 raid sour web freedom Sunday, June 26, 2011 I\u015eIL E\u011eR\u0130KAVRUK ISTANBUL- H\u00fcrriyet Daily News A discussion topic last week on the prophet Muhammad caused some tension among the writers of the Ek\u015fi S\u00f6zl\u00fck; according to reports, somebody filed a complaint to the police accusing some writers of insulting the Prophet….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22,34,154,28,11,67,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-5651-nolu-kanun","category-adnan-hoca","category-eksi-sozluk","category-hakaret","category-turkey","category-turkiye","category-yaman-akdeniz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7wjA8-nI","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/privacy.cyber-rights.org.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/privacy.cyber-rights.org.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/privacy.cyber-rights.org.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/privacy.cyber-rights.org.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/privacy.cyber-rights.org.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/privacy.cyber-rights.org.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1471,"href":"https:\/\/privacy.cyber-rights.org.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470\/revisions\/1471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/privacy.cyber-rights.org.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/privacy.cyber-rights.org.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/privacy.cyber-rights.org.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}