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Screenshot from Wikipedia's English-language page on Turkey.

Just two weeks after a referendum in which voters narrowly approved far-reaching constitutional amendmentsthat will increase thepower of the presidency, a Turkish court ruled that the volunteer-driven international online encyclopedia Wikipedia should be blocked in Turkey.

Amid growingtension between the pro and anti-government camps, the decision providedcitizens with yet anothersnapshotoftheir futureunder President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and hisruling AKP party as they adjust to growing political upheavaland theextension of emergency rule in the country by afurther three months.

Hurriyet Daily News reported that the website ban was ordered by an Ankara court on April 29 after the sites administration refused to remove two English language pages which claimed that Turkey channeled support to jihadists in Syria.

The Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Ministry appeared to confirm this viewpoint when it saidthe site was blocked for becoming an information source with acting with groups conducting a smear campaign against Turkey in the international arena.

As a result, Turkey joined China as one of the fewcountriesin the world to order a complete block on Wikipedia, rather than simply censoring individual pages. The sledgehammer attack on the resourceechoes the zeal with which the government seemingly blocked Twitter after Erdogan promised to wipe out the social mediaservice in 2014.

According to aWikipedia pageon the topic of the website's censorship by countries across the world, previous censorship attempts by Turkey had only been partial, and apparently focused on Turkish-language articles about human genitalia.

The block comes at a time of deepening political schism in Turkey, after Erdogan lashed out against OSCE/ODIHR observers and their reports of vote fraud in the country's tightly contested referendum.

President Erdogan, Turkey's leadingpolitician for the last 14 years, publicly told themas well as other international actors and critics of the governmentto know your place.

The AKPgovernment's strong aversion to the Internet can be traced back at least as far as the Gezi park protestsin 2013 in which social networks helped mobilize opposition to the government in one of the first major tests of Erdogan's enduring leadership.

Just months later, they had reason to hate it some more after recordings allegedly capturing Erdogan and his son discussing illicit financial schemes went viral across YouTube and Twitter, triggering the Turkish leader's now infamousbroadside against the micro-blogging service Twitter.

Turkey has blocked bothYouTube andTwitterin the past, the latter onmultiple occasions. According to EngelliWeb (a platform no longer available online that tracked websites blocked since 2006)there are over 100,000 blocked websites in Turkey today.

Internet speeds have slowed considerably, meanwhile, and are especially sluggish during anti-government rallies, counter-extremism operationsor elections, pointing to likelyinterference by state actors.

In November 2016, the government shut down the internet in the Kurdish-populated south-east of the country for 10 days.

Turkish netizens were quick to turn to Twitter to channel their frustrations with the court decision blocking Wikipedia.

World's most heavily used information source Wikipedia blocked in Turkey. Whats the aim, to stay uninformed?

I have been banned. I have been in hiding all the time. Good morning, I am leaving (play on the words of a popular pop song)

The darkness that blocked Wikipedia

Wikipedia blocked, marriage TV shows shut down. Even Hames Harden would not have been able to do all these blogs.

The marriage programs mentioned in this tweet refer to acourt orderalso on April 29 that blocked reality dating programs which are popular in Turkey, citing these TV shows as unfitfor Turkish traditions and customs.

On the same day,another 3,900 peoplewere dismissed from their jobs, including more than 400 academics for alleged ties to Erdogan's arch-nemesis Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara accuses of engineering a bloody coup attempt in the country last year.

Since the coup took place 120,000 people have been sacked from both public and private sector jobs, and as many as 40,000 arrested, mostly on the basis of suspectedaffiliations to Gulen, an Islamic preacher and educator thatonce wielded formidable behind-the-scenes influence in Turkey.

The fact that Erdogan's Yes campaign secured51.41% of the vote indicates that a large part of the country is supportive of what amounts to a giant social engineering project to permanently change the face of the Turkish republic.

For the 48.59% who votedNo, cue disillusion, alienation and a world in which circumvention tools are needed to access the internet's largest, crowd-sourced educational resource.

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Wikipedia Is Turkey's First Major Censorship Target, Post-Referendum. What Will Be Next? - Global Voices Online

Every week, Jimmy Kimmel Live presents Unnecessary Censorship, which is a segment that shows some of the most memorable moments of the week, but re-imagines them with a touch (and sometimes a handful) of vulgarity.

This week was an especially good week since Hillary Clinton reappeared in the public eye and the Republican House of Representatives signed a bill repealing Obamacare.

RELATED: Nobody is safe in this weeks Unnecessary Censorship

It opens with a hilarious moment in the White House Rose Garden with Paul Ryan declaring, Thank you, Mr. President, thank you for your leadership. Of course, the crew of video editors over at Jimmy Kimmel Live changed the word thank into something a bit less flattering. But perhaps, the best clip is the shows take on the story of a person in Virginia who is kidnapping and shaving cats. They hilariously revamp it into a bizarre story out of Virginia where police are looking for the person or people sh***ing cats.

RELATED: Jimmy Kimmels week in unnecessary censorship featuring Trump, Obama and The Bachelor is just too funny

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This week in Unnecessary Censorship, it's f-bombs a-plenty - Rare.us

Censorship tactics have become more complex, posing new challenges for journalists and non-journalists alike, a new report finds.

In its annual "Attacks on the Press"report, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has documented a range of censorship cases from around the world and revealed a new world of media repression.

"[Censorship] is definitely becoming more sophisticated and complex and is occurring at a variety of levels," CPJ's Advocacy Director Courtney Radsch told IPS.

CPJ's Executive Director described these new strategies as "repression 2.0" in the report, stating; "Repression 2.0 is an update on the worst old-style tactics, from state censorship to the imprisonment of critics, with new information technologies including smartphones and social media producing a softening around the edges."

At the end of 2016, there were almost 260 journalists in jail, the most CPJ has ever documented.

Turkey is the world's leading jailer of journalists with over 145 imprisoned journalists, more than China, Egypt, and Iran combined.

The country's media crackdown deepened following the July 15, 2016 coup attempt and the subsequent imposition of a state of emergency which the Turkish government allegedly used to shut down over 50 newspapers, 30 TV channels, and three news agencies.

The government also reportedly used anti-terror laws to imprison journalists, including the chief editor of Turkish daily newspaper Cumhuriyet Can Dndar who was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of disclosing state secrets, espionage, and aiding a terrorist group. Most recently, life sentences are being sought for 30 people with ties to Zaman newspaper, which is associated with Muslim cleric Fethullah Glen whom the government accuses of organising the coup attempt. The newspaper has since been under government control.

In Kenya, authorities are increasingly using a new mechanism to control the media: money.

"As revenues drain away from traditional media due to the inroads of digital technologies, the use of financial-induced self-censorship, or 'fiscing', can also ensure that journalists are more 'reasonable' in their reporting," said journalist Alan Rusbridger in the report.

"Murder is messy. Money is tidy," he continues.

However, the control of information is not unique to developing countries, said Rasch.

In the US, President Donald Trump has raised anti-media hostility to levels "previously unseen on a national scale," said journalist Alan Huffman in the report.

President Trump has consistently described some media organizations as "fake news," most recently reiterating the claim that media fabricate stories during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). "They have no sources, they just make them up when there are none," he told attendees.

Trump's rhetoric often emboldened his supporters who would boo journalists. Huffman described one case in the report where a Trump supporter wore a T-shirt that suggested the use of lynching, stating: "Rope. Tree. Journalist. SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED."

The president has also restricted and even denied access for reporters perceived as unfriendly, including those from Buzzfeed, the Huffington Post, and the Washington Post, and has threatened to change libel laws to make it easier to sue journalists and news agencies.

In one chapter, Christian Amanpour noted the similarities in such "poisonous" trends in the US and around the world.

"The same dynamic has infected powerful segments of the American media, as it has in Egypt, Turkey, and Russia, where journalists have been pushed into political partisan corners, delegitimized, and accused of being enemies of the state. Journalism itself has become weaponized. We cannot allow that to happen," she stated.

In Ecuador, the government has allegedly used social media as a way to suppress journalists.

After tweeting that Ecuador's former Vice-President Lenin Moreno had not paid income taxes, journalist Bernardo Abad's twitter account had been blocked for violating its terms of service. By the end of the week, nine accounts had been temporarily suspended after also tweeting about Moreno's taxes.

Radsch told IPS that with the internet and social media, there are now "more outlets for repression and threats."

China has taken this to the next level, making plans to link journalists' online posts to their finances.

Under the country's proposed social credit plan, journalists who write or speak critically of the government could face personal financial consequences including decreased credit score or a denied loan. Such censorship goes beyond the business as usual tactics of shutting down reporters' social media accounts to affecting journalists' daily activities.

Rasch highlighted the need to advocate for an open internet and the rights of journalists.

"[We must] remember the importance of the press that continues to help us make sense of all the information that we are bombarded with all the time," she told IPS.

She also recommended journalists adopt secure communication practices in order to maintain their privacy and their sources' privacy.

Most importantly, journalists must stand strong and commit to fact-based reporting.

"This is the best and most important way to fight back against the new censorship," said Simon.

"Journalists cannot allow themselves to feel demoralized. They need to pursue their calling and to seek the truth with integrity, honestly believe that the setbacks, while real, are temporary," he concluded.

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On World Press Freedom Day, Censorship and Repression Reported Globally - Truth-Out

Inside Higher Ed

Kansas community college student reporters allege censorship Inside Higher Ed Hutchinson Community College student journalists say they are being squelched. The journalism professor who advises the paper has been suspended. and more »

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Kansas community college student reporters allege censorship - Inside Higher Ed

Internet cafe in Vietnam. Photo by Ivan Lian via Flickr (CC BY_NC-ND 2.0)

Vietnamese government officials said on April 26 that Facebook has committed to help local law enforcement prevent and remove from Facebook content that violates the countrys laws against offensive and anti-government messages.

According to a government statement, Facebooks Head of Global Policy Management Monika Bickert and Vietnamese Information and Communication Minister Truong Minh Tuan met in Hanoi and formed an agreement to establish a special channel to coordinate monitoring and removalof content from the platform. The statement also indicated that Facebook had agreed to help removefake accounts and fake content, a designation that could be used to label unflattering news or opinions about government policies or officials.

Facebooks most recent transparency reportsays thatthe company did not restrict any content at the behest of the Vietnamese government between July 2015 and June 2016. If the agreement holds, this will likely change soon.

The agreement could mark a shift in Vietnams rocky relationship with Facebook. The US-based social media platform was wholly blocked in Vietnam between 2009 and 2010, and has been briefly blocked in various moments of heightened political tension ever since. While an improved relationship with the company may help prevent wholesale blocking of the platform, the prospect of government entities having close cooperation with Facebook on issues ranging from messages critical of the government to the ill-defined category of fake content is concerning in a country where free speech and media rights are systematically suppressed.

One recent example of Vietnams intolerance for critical media coverage is the arrest of Nguyen Van Hoa, a journalist, security trainer and contributor to Radio Free Asia who has been in state custody since January for abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state. Hoa covered stories about environmental disaster in Vietnam, including capturing video of a peaceful protest attended by over 10,000 people last October. Digital and human rights advocacy groups have called on the Vietnamese government to release Hoa immediately.

According to Reporters Without Borders 2017 World Press Freedom Index, released in late April, Vietnam ranks just ahead of China on a global scale and falls below countries including Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Chinese blogger Wu Bin was arrested by Shenzhen national security police for comments he made online. Wu Bin has been a target for police harassment over the past few years, for allegedly picking quarrels online, participating in a public gathering about the death of a Chinese citizen while in police detention, and spreading rumors about protests in Wukan village. It is unclear what triggered his arrest, though it is increasingly common for netizens critical of the government to be summoned or detained by the police under recent stability control measures.

Human rights defender Bondita Acharya received death threats on social media after condemning the arrests of three Bangladeshi refugees in the state of Assam, India for the possession of beef on April 4. Acharya was critical of the arrests, pointing out that while Assams Cattle Preservation Act outlaws the slaughter of cows, the law does not criminalize possessing or consuming beef. Acharya filed a complaint with the Criminal Investigation Department in Assam, but continues to receive posts threatening violence against her.

Russian authorities are considering increased regulations on the Internet in coming years, including requiring ISPs to decode all Internet traffic and store it for at least six months after it is generated. Officials say this would include forced decryption of Internet traffic (though it is unlikely that they can actually do this), blocking access to circumvention tools that allow Russian users to visit to blacklisted websites, and even potentially regulating Internet exchange points with other countries and the .ru and . domain names. Many of these proposals are technologically complex if not untenable, prohibitively expensive and strongly opposed by businesses. But they nevertheless are an indication of possible restrictions to come.

Eighteen NGOs filed legal submissions before Frances Council of State opposing a ruling by Frances data protection authority (the Commission nationale de linformatique et des liberts, or CNIL) that would require right to be forgotten rulings to have worldwide effect. This would affect Internet content that a court orders removed from the network, on grounds that it is either harmful (to its subject) or out of date and not relevant to the public interest. While the policy currently applies only to content online as it is seen in the European Union (and generally recommends that it be geo-blocked), the ruling would necessitate full removal of said content from the global Internet.

According to the letter, The order of the CNIL sets a dangerous precedent, by opening the door for national authorities in other countries to impose global restrictions on freedom of expression through remedies grounded solely in their own domestic law. The possible race to the bottom is of the utmost concern to the interveners.

Telecom industry advocates in Africa are considering a proposal that would deny Internet resources such as domain names and bandwidth to African governments that shut down the Internet. As described by a member of the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC), which is considering the proposal, the group would be shutting down the Internet for governments that shut down the Internet. The proposal raises questions about the role of Internet governance organizations in relation to state actors amid a rising trend of politically motivated Internet blackouts. In 2016 alone, there were 18 shutdowns in 11 countries, while the country of Cameroon shut down the Internet for over four months in English-speaking regions.

Days after new US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said he would start proceedings to repeal the countrys net neutrality rules, a federal appeals court struck back by rejecting a request to review its decision to uphold the rules. The trade group behind the request, USTelecom, could take its appeal to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the FCC will vote on starting the proceedings to get rid of the rules on May 18.

The group Security Without Borders launched FlexiKiller, a tool to identify whether someone has placed the stalkerware FlexiSPY on your computer and remove it from your system. Motherboard reported on FlexiSPY last month, describing the cheap, powerful and widely available software that enables invasive surveillance of consumer devices.

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Netizen Report: Vietnam Says Facebook Will Cooperate With Censorship Requests on Offensive and 'Fake' Content - Advox (press release) (blog)