WordPress Woes in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

Our partners at neweurasia are reporting that access to the popular WordPress publishing platform has been cut off from users in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, creating severe headaches for bloggers working in the countries.

From neweurasia:

We are now entering the third weekend of whatever crisis has befallen WordPress in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Unfortunately, there’s not much to report, as the situation remains unchanged.

I’ve asked another large WordPress-enabled blogging site in the region whether they’re having problems but have not yet received a reply. The internal forum for WordPress users is also unhelpful. I filed a query with the WordPress organization itself today, now waiting for a reply (I’m not holding out hope — it’s not as if Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are high on the list of priorities, unfortunately). Kazakhtelecom has so far not responded to enquiries about the service interruption.

It’s worth noting that WordPress’ problems follow fast on the heels of Google’s flirtation with exile from Kazakhstan, which might cast some light on the situation. According to Google’s official blog, the Ministry of Communication and Information issued a new order requiring all .kz domain names, including google.kz, to operate on servers located within the country. While Google was subsequently notified of a new rule stating that the order does not apply to previously registered domains, it’s possible that WordPress has nonetheless fallen subject to the regulation.

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