Yildirim was an academic who hosted his work on Google’s Sites platform. Another unidentified person hosted anti-Ataturk content on Google Sites. The Turkish criminal court ordered the anti-Ataturk content blocked, and the Telecommunications Ministry indicated that national ISPs could do so only by blocking the entire Sites platform. The criminal court ordered this blocking to be carried out.
Yildirim challenged this outcome before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Its analysis discussed:
- Internet-specific policy for free expression
- Balance of speech and other rights
- Need to avoid collateral impact on lawful speech, i.e. overblocking of other content on Google Sites
- Need for predictability for citizens subject to law
It concluded that Turkey’s order violated Article 10 (Free Expression/Information right) of the European Convention on Human Rights. Specifically, it found:
- Insufficient predictability to satisfy rule of law requirements for affected citizens.
- Law did not require Turkish judges to inquire further into less restrictive means of blocking unlawful speech.
The ECtHR ruling does not discuss or question about validity of the law against criticizing Ataturk.