Earlier this morning (Aug 20, GMT +7), I logged in to my WordPress dashboard — and, suddenly, found this post announced by Matt on wordpress.com blog. The detail’s out there, though, so I won’t talk much about it — but, bottom line, it was about Turkish officials setting up firewall over whole wordpress.com domain. It is interesting to note that Turkey’s prominent figure of Adnan Oktar (a.k.a Harun Yahya), reportedly, was the one setting up a claim of defamations by some WP bloggers — which then resulted in legal decision by Turkish Judicial Court; thus allowing the forcing of the firewall aforementioned.
Details can be read on the official post on WP.com blog, or on Matt’s personal blog’s entry, though.
Even so, putting some details aside, I’d only like to highlight the facts that
(1) Mr. Oktar has been feeling defamed by some WP bloggers;
(2) The Turkish law granted his claim, thus produced decisions as stated by the attorney’s letter as follows:
So we have become obliged to apply to Turkish judicial courts to stop this defamation executed through your services. By the decision of Fatih 2nd Civil Court of First Instance, number 2007/195, access to WordPress.com has been blocked in Turkey.
(3) As a result of (2), connection to WP.com from the particular country has been completely blocked
(4) It is also reported that Mr. Oktar’s attorney asked WP.com to dismiss those blogs responsible in defaming his client. Here’s the excerpt:
WE DEMAND YOU TO REMOVE AND PROHIBIT ANY BLOGS IN YOUR SITE THAT CONTAIN MY CLIENT’S NAME ADNAN OKTAR OR HIS PEN NAME HARUN YAHYA OR VARIOUS COMBINATION OF THESE 4 NAMES.
***
Of all things, I must emphasize that I’m NOT going to criticize Turkey’s law, since it’s a sovereign country whose system of law I should respect. In this case, it interests me more to write on how it comes between Mr. Oktar and WP.com.
At least, I have few wonderings need to be answered concerning this incident:
(1) Who is Adnan Oktar? I mean, aside of his pen-name Harun Yahya and his works in promoting his kind-of-Creationism, so that he can have the whole country getting blocked to WP.com access?
(2) Does it make sense to disconnect millions people in a country from around-1-million-powered blog hosting, just because few bloggers criticize him? I mean, there are bloggers from many nations hosted in WP.com; and Turkey is only one of those nations. Say that number of the bloggers who criticizes Mr. Oktar can be assumed; how many percent/permile are they from the whole WP.com blogs which gets blocked?
(3) If I don’t mistake it, WP.com has their own Terms of Service which governs kind-of lawsuit that was thought to be probable. In point 15,
[…] Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, this Agreement, any access to or use of the Website will be governed by the laws of the state of California, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of law provisions, and the proper venue for any disputes arising out of or relating to any of the same will be the state and federal courts located in San Francisco County, California. […]
Which, as I see it, states that WP.com doesn’t have to bow to any legal action based on any laws except to that of the state of California, as long as the law is applicable/not stated as otherwise.
Does Turkish Judicial Court decision granted to Mr. Oktar warrant the inapplicability of that condition?
(4) The essence of blog is the freedom-of-speech. Since the case is about defamation, wouldn’t it be more elegant for Mr. Oktar to reply them, from his point-of-view, in his own site? Please note that I’m NOT saying that resolving through the court is a bad choice — I just suggest a more elegant way in my opinion.
(5) And, on top of all; is it alright for Turkish bloggers to keep getting blocked like this? I personally don’t think so, since blogs aren’t always about critics-and-defamations as suggested. There are people who blogs to write on their own about themselves and other things; thus unrelated to the main topic here. 😦
Well, at least those are what I wonder from the entire case. Anybody can help me understanding those?
Ps:
I’d also like to send my sympathy to the Turkish WP.com bloggers who get firewalled. Hope the ban will be lifted soon. 😦
PPs:
Comments are welcome in English and/or Indonesian. (English is preferred, though)
sora-kun.weblog() 
I actually do not know what was going on exactly (poor i am), since today i just checked my blog a few times (and everything goes well as usual) without any consideration of other things, my blog only then I left it.
So, i just know this from yours. -__-`
But, you`re right, it was quite strange, refer to point (1), and i still have no answer. Anyway, just like you said, hope such kind of thing will not happen in our country.
I feel sorry to hear that. For every Turkish bloggers, those who get firewalled, i just hope, you all can blogging again soon.
It doesn’t make sense, anyway. People said that Harun yahya is a pen name from multiple identity.
Surely, I’m getting fu**** up when I heard that all turkish Bloggers had no chance of writing, because of being firewalled.
Well, from what I gather, Harun Yahya is very rich. So there you have it.
Argh, this incident would degrade his name further among the internet community…
How sweet. I just posted my own version of criticism 🙂
Which means he has more power than it appeared to be.
Most of the defamation blogs are indeed in Turkish. The ‘prime suspect’ happened to be Mr. Edip Yuksel, his former mentor.
(On a slightly unimportant note, philosophically Mr. Yuksel is highly influential for me 😉 )
Oh, get real. This is Mr. Harun Yahya we’re talking about. He filtered the criticism that appeared on his site’s mailbox. He forcefully closed many Turkish websites that criticized his writings.
Alas, he didn’t see blogging coming. Yessir, blogging IS that powerful 😉
NOTHING should be blocked. And yet, he’s even firewalling the entire country. Nuts.
* * *
Still, life can’t get more ironic than this. An infamous blackmail maestro gets ‘blackmailed’.
Feel Darwin’s wrath! 😈I don’t understand about that man, cos I only do blog.
Just wondering , is it fascism? . 😆
nyahahaha…Dana u really into fascism, dont u? 😀
anyway, should we proud of this poor condition instead?
since it has shown to us that blog indeed play a big role in govt…
and ya, i feel so sorry to hear bout turkish and their freedom to speak up.
hope our govt isnt that cruel enough to let us say what we want to say in the future…
or else u’ll be my enemy, Mr.yudhoyonoIf you look pretty close to the comments in the WordPress blog thing, you can indeed see people calling him a fascist.
one thing I’m currently wondering about is, that how much of the ‘truth’ that lies within such media – so-called ‘internet’.
true that many of his books were containing fallacies as well as he doesn’t possess adequate scientific background to say that his works are ‘academically acceptable’, but what concerns me is about what really happened, and how much we could rely on such statements that is found around the internet.
although I do put my interest on analyzing his works (mainly books) which can’t be said ‘academically accepted’ – could not disagree for this – I can’t be really sure of many things else in the net: there could be character assasination as well as truth spoken or written.
aside from reports from the official news by WordPress and some other googling-around, I found things got their way in the net: praise and sarcasm, yet some ‘news’ that might sound like character assasination, makes me wondering how much of truth lies within these.
I can’t clearly state my stance as there might be so many of disinformation around. I do believe though, that Mr Oktar have gone a not elegant nor intellectual way to get things through by this banning and stuffs, as well as I do believe that his works cannot be said to be ‘academically acceptable’.
I can say that I still need more official, non-biased information on my side, though 😉
Whether he’s a creationist bigot, a closet paedophile, or a combination of both, isn’t exactly relevant. Thing is, this guy blocking the entire WordPress.com from Turkey is simply not justifiable whatsoever.
Pertaining to his theories, though, it is secondary for now, whether we’re for or against him.
On a funny little sidenote, in his recent photographs dated August 2007, he looks like a drug lord. Surely even a drug lord-looking man can be a saint, but yes, he looks like a drug lord.
And that’s subjective.
@ jejakpena
Exactly what I wonder, either.
I could only speculate that he possesses some wealth and influence out there (just speculation, which has no basis) — or, probably, a person using some loophole on the nations’ law to execute his desire.
Not really sure, though.
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@ Mihael “D.B.” Ellinsworth
AFAIK, “Harun Yahya” is a recognized pen-name of Adnan Oktar, and so has been stated on the attorney’s letter sent to WP.com crew… (see on their blog-post).
It’s probable that some other authors work under the same name, though. In case that it’s true, then Mr. Oktar is automatically one of them — or so he claimed.
Well, about the same here… ^^
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@ Scrooge McDuck
Positive, I guess. I got reminded of the recent Roy Suryo’s case, though. 😆
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@ Kopral Geddoe
Seems so… or probably not. I wouldn’t discard the possibility that he’s just someone using loopholes in the country’s law; hence come the legal power — or just someone very used for instrumenting media coverage.
…which, of all things, reminds me of Roy Suryo quite much. 😛
And even in case of getting real, I should keep on thinking positively about people. Desho, desho?
About him shutting down the opposite remarks toward his writings, I’ve heard about it, though. At least, I suggested that way-better than making millions of Turkish suffering blockage — though he should have done it much earlier. 😀
That would be more ironic if everyone agrees with him about banning WP.com, I guess. ^^
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@ danalingga
Well, Harun Yahya is well-known of his work promoting his-kind-of-Creationism based on Qur’anic point of view. He was said to be quite a zealot in promoting it, though.
Religious-fascism or not, I can’t really conclude, since he also wrote about anti-semitism and counter-terrorism morality. I’d rather say that he’s a neo-creationism zealot, though. 😕
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@ yume
Let’s hope so… though it would be very-very unwise move to take by our leader in the future. 32-year-oppression of press should provide them better consideration before doing that. 😀
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@ Kopral Geddoe (again)
But still remember that he *also* promotes ideas against anti-semitism and anti-terrorism, though it was later on after his early publications. At least, that would reduce fitness of the term “fascist” upon him….
Like I wrote before in this comment, I’d say that “neo-creationist zealot” is of a better use. ^^
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@ yud1
Well, to sum it up… it’s an information battle now. Objective writings can be found, and subjective ones are also available — even ad-hominems and cynical ones can be read through, I guess.
What makes him so ‘prominent’ in this case is that he instrumented blocking of WP.com for all-over Turkey (there was no counter-claim yet against this). Thus, while discarding details about his track-record and else, it seems clear that he made whole Turkey gets banned to WP.com.
Of course more objective, unbiased infos about him is hard to find in this period of information battle *I mean about writing and blocking, and censorship applied* .
However, one only reliable info is that Mr. Oktar sent attorney’s letter to WP.com, and he has been on big role of the blockage aforementioned. Thus came the news. 😉
@ Kopral Geddoe (again)
So I think…
as I stated, IMO any kind of blocking is against the freedom of speech and expression. also as I put it again below 😉
it’s just that some (so-claimed) Turkish bloggers in WP blog talks about ‘people don’t have the big picture about the situation here’. the only thing clear is, WP got banned in Turkey. can’t agree to that, though.
anything else is still much of uncertainty, at least for me.
yet I can also say that such way is quite childish and arrogant; continuing that way, they might have to close down the entire world of internet. 😀
…I wonder, quite like a deja vu that we experienced a while ago in Indonesia?
True dat. That is so Roy Suryo; limited intellectual capacity sugarcoated with an overwhelming vibe and sweet talks.
Question his twisted politics of blocking the web first for now. We can talk about his theories subsequently.
…or maybe not. Creationism-Evolutionism debates are pretty much fruitless anyways.
[OOT]
And that makes him a celebrity, though not inside the net. 😆
[/OOT]
[OOT]
The net has its own exclusive myriad of celebrities 😛
[/OOT]
as I re-read the letter again, it does seem that Mr Oktar (or his attorney, or whosoever acting on his behalf) feels that some of WordPress user did write their ‘slanderous statements’ towards him on their WP. quite ‘normal’ as I might think, as quite a number of ‘slanderous statements’ – as they might say – I saw in WP.
err… ‘normal’ that WP is being ‘targeted’ here, I mean. guilty by association, maybe? 😉
but back then it’s either that he must be someone quite powerful back in the country, or the gap in law involving cyber-stuff is highly exploitable there. god knows.
yes, blog is really that powerful. AFAIK, it’s the only non-formally established media that can make some-or-more people try to ban it. I heard cases of bans towards newspapers, magazines, or even TV, but in those examples are formally established media.
@yud1
Ah, about some news around the ban — and why WP is being targeted — read this comment (in Indonesian) on Geddoe’s blog. It explains quite much about it — though there are still uncertainties around.
First-hand news, perhaps. 😉
…have read it already
And there you have it, His Majesty Matt are being plunged into the depravity vortex, rotten-to-the-core little cute thing called politics
A sad for for free speech.
A sad day, I meant.
Btw, I suddenly crave for Turkish kebab. Yum.[OOT] i love kebab too, geddoe!
[/OOT]
@ Kopral Geddoe
“The real enemy of truth is a solid majority,” someone ever said… (I forget who, though. A Frenchman? 😕 )
Politics came about keeping facts unbeknown to people — very sad, indeed.
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@ yume
[OOT]
Hey, isn’t that some way of showing solidarity to Turkish bloggers?
[/OOT]
[…] ini masih rada berhubungan dengan polemik Harun Yahya yang sempat dibahas di blog ini kemarin dulu. Meskipun begitu, untuk kali ini, saya tak hendak […]
[…] tentang apa. Sebenarnya saya juga tertarik dengan Harun Yahya dan WordPress seperti halnya tulisan Sora dan Difo yang bolak balik saya baca. Seharusnya saya menulis postingan berjudul Antara Harun Yahya […]
I think this is good News From Turkey. WP is true with this policy, give some freedom to someone whose feeling defamed by some WP bloggers, like Adnan Oktar.
But this policies have many reason until WP to do like that,
Can U tell me what is That,…..???
Having your connection blocked just because some wiseguys (that has nothing to do with you) did some questionable moves isn’t ‘freedom’.
It’s ‘bad joke’.
@ belumngantuk
Umm, I don’t really take it as a very good news, I guess.
Turkish officials blocked the whole WP.com, because Mr. Oktar felt defamed by few of WP bloggers. I do believe that defamation is quite unethical manner to exercise in blogosphere, though — but putting blockage to entire country because of such claim is sure overreacting. 😦
P.s. I don’t really get your English, though — I might have gotten your statement(s) wrong. Please correct if I mistook what you meant. 🙂
bad in english… so im offer an smile 🙂
bad in english… so im offer a smile 🙂
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
@ Idetrorce
Would you elaborate, please? 🙂
…that’s a spam, d00d. I had one too.
@ Kopral Geddoe
But it has no link, hence I didn’t think it as such. I thought that it might be someone who does short talks, though. (o_0)”\
*ah, let it be. to proof a degree of celeblogrity, that’s the case* 😆
[…] kejadian luar biasa, di mana para blogger harus berkonsolidasi di dunia nyata (misal: pemerintah membredel akses ke wordpress.com seperti di Turki tempo hari dan akan ada aksi massa) — maka saya akan tertarik untuk bergabung. Itu baru kopdar yang […]
[…] kasus Harun Yahya di Turki. Gugatan atas defamatory bisa melayang dengan mudah hanya untuk membungkam lawan bicara Anda, […]
In today Suara Merdeka, ada berita bahwa organisasi massa Islam dengan akronim TAMIM, meminta penutupan situs lapo tuak.wordpress.com. Mereka meminta pemblokiran wordpress, bila WP tidak menutup situs tersebut. Sayang saya belum menemukan link-nya di situs Suara Merdeka. A new threat ?
Beneran? Lah itu koran Semarang bukan?
Koran Jawa Tengah tepatnya. Tampaknya ini bersamaan dengan usaha menutup situs Faith Freedom Indonesia.
Saya sudah lihat beritanya di berbagai situs online. Gambarnya memang sangat, sangat ofensif. Saya tidak terganggu dengan FFI selama mereka berdiskusi [main cela-celaan] sama yang mau saja secara eksklusif di situs mereka, tetapi mempublikasikan gambar-gambar seperti itu di blog kok rasanya gimana yah. Sangat disayangkan. 😦 Bumi blogosfer Indonesia bisa gak kondusif.
Well menurut saya sih selama wordpress masih membuka akses kepada mereka yang memiliki pandangan berseberangan dengan lapotuak.com/sejenisnya, rasanya sih masih fair-fair saja. Lagipula FFI juga tak ekslusif-eksklusif amat, orang yang bukan member juga bisa melihat komik tsb.
Sebaliknya blog-blog yang menyerang agama lain yang tergolong minoritas di Indonesia, juga mendapat tempat di wordpress….
Saya memang tidak menyuarakan pemblokiran. Tetapi saya sangat menyesali. Samalah ketika Geddoe miris banyak support buat Imam Samudra, publikasi komik itu pun membuat saya miris.
@ oddworld
Tergantung. Kalau pemerintah belajar dari kasus Fitna, mereka harusnya paham bahwa tindakan blocking semena-mena bukan solusi. Justru bakal menimbulkan uproar yang lebih besar di kalangan internet RI.
IMO, kuncinya ada di bagaimana pemerintah menyelesaikan masalah ini. Let’s hope they’re getting wiser by now. 😉
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@ gentole
Seperti yang sudah masbro tulis di blog sendiri:
Masalahnya bukan di internetnya, tapi pada manusianya itu sendiri. Selama perbedaan itu tidak terjembatani — selama orang tidak tergerak untuk saling menghargai — maka peristiwa macam ini akan terus terjadi. This is older than dirt.
Mengutip Nyai Ontosoroh, “Manusia dari dulu sama saja. Yang berbeda cuma alatnya.” 😆