Int'l Orgs Call for Turkey to Unblock Wattpad
On July 12, Turkey blocked access to the online writing and publishing platform Wattpad. Organizations including the International Publishers Association, the Turkish Publishers Association, the Turkish Writer's Union, and PEN International have issued a statement calling for the government of Turkey to reverse their action.
“This indiscriminate blocking of a whole literary platform is a clear restriction of the freedom to publish and continues the worrying trend in Türkiye to restrict the publication of books," Kristenn Einarsson, chair of the IPA’s Freedom to publish committee, wrote. "We call on the authorities to unblock Wattpad immediately.”
The Turkish governments action is the latest in a series of blocking orders targeting popular social media platforms and other websites, including literary publishers. According to Free Web Turkey, the authorities of Turkey blocked access to 219,059 URLs in 2023 alone.
