Silicon Angle
Do you think your government has absurd internet censorship laws? If you are reading this, probably not, so good for you! But as for our brothers and sisters from Turkmenistan, they aren’t quite so lucky.
In the latest example of Turkmenistan’s extreme take on internet censorship, a viral video of a man falling off a horse after crossing the finish line during a race has been banned from being shown or mentioned in news articles and on websites based in the country. Meanwhile, to stop the spread of the video on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, which they have little control over, authorities have even attempted to restrict access to these altogether. Why? Because the dude who couldn’t keep his butt on the horse and his hands on the reigns is none other than the country’s esteemed President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.
The incident, which is hugely embarrassing for a man who likes to cultivate a personality cult to rival that of North Korea’s Kims, was secretly filmed by an anonymous race attendee, who was able to take a high definition video of the president’s gaffe. Consequently, he or she uploaded it to the web, and like most embarrassing footage of famous people, the clip rapidly went viral.
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