Has WordPress been banned in Kazakhstan?
Kazakhstan, Media and Internet6 Comments
The WordPress blog platform, which services most of the Kaznet, is inaccessible in several Almaty offices. This blockade has been the result of internal rules and electronic filters. Since it began, several Kazakh language bloggers have migrated to .kz domains. Meanwhile, I have unsuccessfully sought more information from internet service providers.
This blockade has been inconsistent. Several Kazakh language bloggers have still been able to access WordPress. Indeed, some enthusiastic Kaznetizens even translated the platform into Kazakh. But as of two weeks ago the situation seems to be changing with more and more unable to access the site.
I experienced it firsthand while conducting a “Medianet” training session at the International Journalism Center. I could only open the WordPress homebase, nothing more.
At my request, the International Journalism Center sought to fix the problem. The Center’s chief coordinator immediately called IT specialists of its internet service provider. Three days later the company reported to the Center that they had analyzed the problem and concluded that it wasn’t originating with them.
One of the famous Kazakh language bloggers, Akzere, has moved her blog to the dosym.kz domain, explaining:
I can not open my [original WordPress] blog from my office computer and Arshat helped me to register another one.
Makpal Mukankyzy, a journalist with Azattyq Radio and an active Kazakh language blogger, has also experienced problems:
I can open my blog in one place but not in another. For example, I can post from my radio staff computer, but not from other computers.
A reader of Mukankyzy, Kuanysh, comments:
WordPress.com (and .org) is simultaneously banned.
At the moment, it’s unclear whether WordPress has been silently banned or if it is a technical problem of some kind. I will keep you all updated on the matter.
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I think that is inconsistent.
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Oh, gosh! Stop Banning! Kyrgyzstan also suffers!
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No problems right now on KazTransCom. The inconsistency makes me wonder if the websites themselves are having issues.
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When in Almaty this summer, I noticed it was more an issue of where I was, which points to individual servers just being incompatible, too old, without the proper software to handle today’s websites. This isn’t banning, and it isn’t the direct result of government policy. Yet.
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I’d love to know how exactly wordpress.org is being banned? Just to clarify, wordpress.org is simply the site that web site owners can download the blogging software from, to then install on their own server.
wordpress.com is the site where you can start your own free blog, hosted on /their/ server.
For ‘wordpress.org’ blogs (that is any website using the WordPress software on a private server) to be banned would require a reasonable amount of intelligence in the blocking procedure. I’ve not yet noticed any problems accessing websites that simply use the WordPress software on their own server.
For ‘wordpress.com’ blogs (that is blogs that normally have wordpress.com in their URL, or at least hosted their) to be blocked is a lot easier, for example the technical problem that some Kazakh ISPs have LiveJournal could easily be accidentally replicated.
FWIW, I can access Kuanysh’s blog via my (virtual)ISP here in Astana, they used MegaLine’s connections I believe.
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Just realised that the article meant that the website wordpress.org itself was apparently blocked, not any site that was running their software.
@Michael Hancock – When you say it depended on where you were, could you clarify? If you mean your physical location effected (affected?) whether a certain website would load, then this points to issues not on the server hosting the site at all. If you mean it depended on which site you were visiting, then I doubt people would install WordPress on their server, see it didn’t work and then just leave it there?
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