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National Interest vs. Online Freedom of Expression: The Discussions of Internet Users on the Blocking of ‘Wikipedia’ in Turkey

In 2017, The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) blocked online access to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia in Turkey due to its articles and comments that mention Turkey as a country that seems to be in coordination and aligned with various terrorist groups. Since then, the blocking has been criticized by Turkish people as a violation of the right of access to knowledge and a crackdown on online freedom of expression. However, freedom of expression becomes controversial when expression appears to threaten some important national interests. This paper aims at providing a framework for resolving questions about the recognition of online information rights, by finding out the rationale behind online users’ arguments on freedom of expression. In this article, online users’ comments on the blocking of Wikipedia in Turkey are analyzed. The findings reveal that most of the users disapprove the blocking. Both opponents and approvers discussed the issue by putting a broad framework and they put forward very different arguments to justify their attitude.