Off the wire
• Somalia pledges to review media law  • 2nd LD: 24 dead after landslide struck southern Kyrgyzstan  • China's consumer price growth likely to accelerate in April  • Russian air defense system highly vigilant after DPRK missile test: lawmaker  • FLASH: NON-MEMBER OF EU CANNOT HAVE SAME RIGHTS AND ENJOY SAME BENEFITS AS MEMBER: EU'S BREXIT GUIDELINES  • FLASH: EU WILL ALSO PREPARE FOR HANDLING SITUATION IF NEGOTIATIONS WITH UK FAIL: BREXIT GUIDELINES  • FLASH: EU WILL UPDATE BREXIT GUIDELINES IN COURSE OF NEGOTIATIONS AS NECESSARY  • World's closest glacier to a city continues to shrink  • FLASH: EU AIMS TO REACH RESULT FAIR AND EQUITABLE FOR ALL MEMBER STATES, IN INTEREST OF CITIZENS: BREXIT GUIDELINES  • 4 militants killed in eastern Algeria  
You are here: 　 Home

Turkey blocks access to Wikipedia website

Xinhua, April 29, 2017 Adjust font size:

The access to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia was blocked in Turkey on Saturday, Turkish internet watchdog said.

Users in Turkey have been unable to access any webpages of Wikipedia without using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) since Saturday morning.

Turkey's Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) confirmed in a statement that it had imposed the ban on wikipedia.org, but gave no details.

"After technical analysis and legal consideration based on the Law Nr. 5651, an administrative measure has been taken for this website wikipedia.org," it said, as quoted by local daily Hurriyet.

According to private broadcaster NTV, the access was blocked after the website refused to delete false content about Turkey's ties with terror groups.

The site has been blocked under a provisional administrative order without a court order but monitoring group says an order is expected in the coming days. Endit