Turkey blocks Web site over insults to Ataturk

By Eric Auchard

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Turkish government has been blocking access nationwide to Slide Inc and its popular multimedia Web software after a local court ruled the site let users post photos and stories insulting the Turkish republic's founder, the company said on Monday.

Slide joins Web services such as YouTube, Facebook and MySpace that have been barred by countries including Turkey, Pakistan, Thailand and China for offering Web services that violate national laws restricting political speech.

Turkish law forbids insults to "Turkishness," state institutions or insults to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey in the 1920s and 1930s. Famous authors, academics and political figures have faced prosecution.

John Duncan, Slide's general counsel, said the company started getting complaints in February from Turkish users of Slide services shortly after a court ordered Turkish Telecom, the nation's Internet service provider, to block Slide Web sites.

The order appeared to have been handed down on January 24 by a court in Civril, Turkey, Duncan said. Civril is located about 185 miles southwest of the capital of Ankara.

Slide officials said they never received formal notice of the action against the company. The company said it had been unable to identify the offending material but that Turkish Telecom had complied with the court's order.

Duncan said Slide's policy was to comply to remove offensive content from its site.

"It is not exactly clear to me what the substance of this material was. We support free speech, but we take down specifically insulting material. We might well take this down" if it could learn what items had provoked the action, he said.