The good old days when the Internet was free of people meddling in the free flow of information. In Turkey they have recently banned access to soundcloud.com http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/25657673.asp If English speaking you can translate wıth Google Translate (not a very good translation but good enough)
You may not know of soundcloud.com you may never have used it but this blocking of yet another site is making Turkey's Internet almost as regulated as China's Internet if not more so. Many website's you visit nowadays have a screen that replaces the website's place so instead of the website's page you get a page telling you that big Daddy (büyük baba) says NO! It is of course up to a country's government to regulate their own internet but this is overkill on a grand scale. What possibly could soundcloud have done to piss the censors off.
It may sound trivial "I've lost my soundcloud", which had new indie artists producing and sharing music but this is definitely stifling the sharing of information which is what the Internet was intended for. In fact the original Internet was setup to make sure the flow of Information was always there between many of America's top Universities (in the event of a nuclear strike on the US some of the connections would perhaps still function. However, many governments by proxy through their telecommunications services cancel out website's on a day to day basis. Ask yourself a question! If we want to use soundcloud and there may be something derogatory about Turkey or Turkish people or even about myself shouldn't we be allowed to hear it and then make our own minds up if we should view/listen or browse (if that was indeed the reason it was stopped!) or should an unseen hand acting as our guardian be regulating us. Of course, porn sites should be regulated because if children see what some adults see as unnatural acts they will be affected for life by seeing what is on most sites a natural and not unnatural act for adults (all adults do it or how would the world have new babies) but there should be regulation to make sure children don't see these acts or a series of either login scenes or verify your age screens to stop them from accidentally viewing.
What possibly could a sound sharing site primarily sharing music do to annoy anyone. This alone in a country that loves music may be enough to make people think more about why their personal rights are being eroded on a daily basis.
There is currently a race between the censoring of website's between Turkey and China and let's hope for the free world's sake that Turkey doesn't win this unneeded contest. The internet can be a bad thing at times but you don't need to over regulate to prevent your country's people from seeing what one person (or a select few) deems shouldn't be seen.
Intelligent people regulate themselves!!
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