Off-Topic: Internet Censorship

It's common for totalitarian regimes to censor or limit access to the Internet. The Internet is a place where everyone can express their opinions, good or bad, about religion, politics, sport or weight loss programmes. This freedom is repulsive to political leaders who think that they alone should be allowed to tell their people what to think.

Some countries, such as China, block social media sites like Facebook. That's understandable, even though I disagree with it. Some countries block foreign news sites. That's also understandable, since news sites are almost always biased. Now President Erdogan of Turkey has sunk to a new low. He has blocked Wikipedia. That is totally incomprehensible. Wikipedia prides itself on its political neutrality. Whenever there are conflicting viewpoints, such as the annexation of Crimea by Russia, Wikipedia's pages carefully present both sides of the argument.

That must be Erdogan's problem. For him there's only one side of the argument. He's right and the rest of the world is wrong. Anyone who dares remain neutral is his enemy.

Wikipedia is neutral, but I'm not. I'll give you my opinion. President Erdogan is the most evil and most despicable leader in Europe. (Turkey lies partially in Europe, partially in Asia). The only correct way to deal with him is to put a bullet in his head and hope his replacement is a better man. If not, he should be shot as well.

If Erdogan reads this, will he block my blog as well? Probably. And every other blog or news site that dares to criticise him. Then the Internet will be as empty as the newspaper he's reading.