The more things change, the more they stay the same. From the July 1901 issue of Scientific American:
The inexplicable conservatism and arrogance of the Turkish customs authorities was recently shown by the prohibition of the importation of typewriters into the country. The reason advanced by the authorities was that in the event of seditious writings executed by the typewriter being circulated, it would be impossible to obtain any clew by which the operator of the machine could be traced. A large consignment of 200 typewriters was lying in the custom house at the time the above law was passed, and will have to be returned.
Hmm, so the Turkish gov't bans typewriters because they might be used to do something illegal. Sound like anything the current US gov't is doing? (think DeCSS…)