Q: How many Creationists does it take to bring down WordPress?
A: This post has nothing whatever to do with audio. It’s about something much more important.
This blog and many others is hosted by WordPress. A great many people are grateful to WordPress for releasing in open source form their blogging software and for offering to host blogs for those who are unable to or do not want to install the software on their own servers. WordPress and other blogging sites have done much to give anyone with an Internet connection a voice—and while the quality of voices varies incredibly, I believe we all owe WordPress, etc. a debt for making speech (almost) free-as-in-beer as well as (almost) free-as-in-speech.
But not all see it that way. It seems that a certain “Muslim” Creationist here in Istanbul took exception to some things that someone-or-another said about him in their blogs and managed to strong-arm the courts here into blocking the entire wordpress.com domain on TTnet and possibly other ISPs. Way to go.
WordPress have already commented on their position on the issue, and I applaud their response. I have no idea if the blockage owes itself to a sympathizing, pro-Islamist government or to a court system that is giddy with its own ability to pull the plug on domains. Whatever the case may be, the main responsibiliy for this outrage belongs to Oktar and his lawyers. Way to go.
While I have little doubt that there are special rooms in Hades awaiting enemies of free speech (be it because of their vanity or for more sinister reasons), these people clearly have the potential to cause a lot of damange before they get there. Attention.
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