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Marchers protest new Turkish Web filtering rules

Marchers protest new Turkish Web filtering rules

From Yesim Comert, CNN

May 15, 2011 — Updated 2041 GMT (0441 HKT)

Thousands of Turks march Sunday in Istanbul to protest against Internet filtering regulations set to take effect in August

Thousands of Turks march Sunday in Istanbul to protest against Internet filtering regulations set to take effect in August

Istanbul (CNN) — Several thousand opponents of new Internet filtering rules, set to take effect in Turkey in August, marched in protest in Istanbul on Sunday.

Demonstrators carried signs in Turkish and English reading “Don’t touch my Internet” and “We don’t need protection,” while they chanted slogans against website censorship.

Internet users must choose among four filtering options, including family, children, domestic or standard settings, as a part of Turkey’s “Safe Internet Service.”

The regulations are designed to protect children from indecent online content, according to BTK, the prime minister’s information technology board. Critics argue that it is not clear how the filtering system will work.

The marchers stopped several times to stage brief sit-ins during the two-hour route from the Taksim Square to the end of Istiklal Street.

Organizers claimed the marcher numbered in the “thousands,” which appeared to be accurate to a CNN reporter on the scene.

The new filtering rules will be enforced beginning August 22, the government said.

A “Enemies of the Internet” report issued this month by Reporters Without Borders included Turkey on its 2011 list of “countries under surveillance.”

The BTK was “not fooling anyone when it claims to be rendering a service to Internet users by giving them a choice between a lot of restrictions and fewer restrictions,” the report said.

Turkey already blocks more than 7,000 websites, “in most cases without reference to any court,” the report said.

via Marchers protest new Turkish Web filtering rules – CNN.com.

May 16, 2011
Thousands March in Istanbul Against Turkish Internet Censorship

Thousands of Turkish demonstrators poured into central Istanbul today to protest against the government’s Internet censorship.

Haberturk newspaper said 50,000 joined a protest centered on the city’s Taksim Square, while CNN-Turk reported “hundreds of thousands” taking to the streets in demonstrations across the country.

New regulations from Turkey’s Internet Technologies and Communications Authority set to come into effect on Aug. 22 will require Internet service providers to offer a choice of four filtering options: family, child, domestic or standard. Many websites are expected to be blocked as a result of the filtering measures, Zaman newspaper reported.

More than 600,000 people joined a Facebook page named “Internetime Dokunma!” or “Don’t Touch My Internet!” The group’s organizers say Turkish authorities have already blocked 60,000 websites.

To contact the reporter on this story: Benjamin Harvey in Ankara at bharvey11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net

via Thousands March in Istanbul Against Turkish Internet Censorship – Bloomberg.

May 16, 2011
Internet Freedom in Turkey: System Error

For some reason, Turkey, which boasts one of the most educated and technologically savvy populations in the region, has had a particularly hard time addressing internet freedom. In a country that boasts of its capacity to serve as a model of democracy in the Middle East, freedom of expression on the internet has been a long-standing problem; the Turkish government’s instinct has consistently been to apply broad, clumsy bans on any content that might possibly be objectionable.

It is part of a more general problem of creeping censorship. The Turkish press, as discussed in previous posts, has come under increased pressure. In recent years, Turkey has been particularly aggressive in attempting to police radio and television for “undermining the morality of minors.” Sex and the City II, for example, was banned from cable television because its representation of gay marriage was deemed dangerous to the Turkish family. Tobacco smoking villains in the famous cartoon TinTin similarly resulted in fines from the ever watchful – and humorless – eyes of Turkish bureaucrats. The result has been a media culture that has increasingly engaged in self-censorship to avoid fines and possible closure.

The Turkish government has been equally zealous in its policing of the internet. Youtube has been banned repeatedly, and for years at a time. The ban was implemented so clumsily that other Google-owned sites were banned as well. After a copyright complaint, Google’s blogging site, Blogspot, which hosts thousands of individual blogging sites, has similarly been banned. Tens of thousands of internet sites are currently banned in Turkey. Most recently, the popular website satirical website, Sourtimes, which has almost two hundred thousand views per day, has been targeted. Satire, apparently, is a dangerous thing in Turkey.

The situation seems likely to get worse before it gets better. Turkish government regulators plan to institute mandatory systems that will automatically filter web content starting August 22. The Telecommunications Directorate has produced a list of 138 “illegal words” that cannot be used on websites. Thus, a Turkish website devoted to “hot jazz” would run afoul of the law (“hot” is banned) as would domain names with terms like gay, confidential, confession, local, or blonde. Presumably, the bureaucrats at the directorate were not aware of the irony when they also banned the word “free.”

For good reason Turkish internet users fear “the death of the internet” and a continuation of the sort of creeping cultural repression that has been seen elsewhere. Media savvy Turks have already begun a web-based protest movement. The question is whether anybody will be able to access it after August 22.

via Internet Freedom in Turkey: System Error | Human Rights Now – Amnesty International USA Blog.

May 6, 2011
Critics Challenge New Internet Controls in Turkey

Turkey already bans more websites than any other European country. Now the government is set to introduce new controls that officials say are needed to protect children. Critics fear they represent an effort control the web.

The Turkish government calls its new Internet controls Safe Use of the Internet. They are scheduled to take effect in August and will require all Internet users to choose from one of four filter profiles operated by their server provider. Law Professor Yamman Akdeniz at Bilgi University in Istanbul says the measures open the door to government censorship of the Internet.

“We are concerned that the government [will] enforce and develop a censorship infrastructure,” said Akdeniz. “Even the standard profile is a filter system and the problem is government mandated, government controlled and there are no other countries within the EU or Council of Europe that has a similar system. And the decision also states if anyone who tries to circumvent the system, further action may be taken.”

Government officials say the new regulations are needed to protect families, particularly children, from pornography. But critics say it is unclear which websites can be banned and for what reasons, and the regulations can also be used to silence political websites. Nadire Mater is the head of the Turkish human-rights web page Bianet.

“Depending on the government, depending on the ministers, one can be put on the blacklist,” said Mater. “This is not a democracy. We’ve experienced this before, because police, from time to time, they distributed these blacklists, and in some Internet cafes or companies we were getting the complaints from the visitors they were saying that we don’t have any access [to] Bianet.”

Bianet criticizes the government for establishing the new measures by decree, rather than by a vote in parliament and is challenging the new controls in court. Web freedom is a concern within the European Union, which Turkey is seeking to join. EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fule stressed those concerns before the EU parliament earlier this year.

“Freedom of press means guaranteeing a public space for free debate, including on the Internet,” said Fule. “The European Parliament’s draft resolution rightly underlines these issues.”

That concern centers on Turkey’s record of courts banning more websites than any other European country. In 2009, the state stopped releasing figures, but the latest number is believed to be in excess of 12,000. Again, Professor Akdeniz.

“Several thousands web sites have been blocked,” said Akdeniz. “And although the government claims that they predominantly block access to pornographic websites, several hundred alternative-media websites, especially websites dealing with the Kurdish debate, are blocked access to for political reasons.”

via Critics Challenge New Internet Controls in Turkey | Europe | English VOA.

April 26, 2011
Internet access is ‘a fundamental right’

Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.

The survey – of more than 27,000 adults across 26 countries – found strong support for net access on both sides of the digital divide.

Countries such as Finland and Estonia have already ruled that access is a human right for their citizens.

International bodies such as the UN are also pushing for universal net access.

“The right to communicate cannot be ignored,” Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), told BBC News.

“The internet is the most powerful potential source of enlightenment ever created.”

He said that governments must “regard the internet as basic infrastructure – just like roads, waste and water”.

“We have entered the knowledge society and everyone must have access to participate.”

The survey, conducted by GlobeScan for the BBC, also revealed divisions on the question of government oversight of some aspects of the net.

Web users questioned in South Korea and Nigeria felt strongly that governments should never be involved in regulation of the internet. However, a majority of those in China and the many European countries disagreed.

In the UK, for example, 55% believed that there was a case for some government regulation of the internet.

Rural retreat

The finding comes as the UK government tries to push through its controversial Digital Economy Bill.

As well as promising to deliver universal broadband in the UK by 2012, the bill could also see a so-called “three strikes rule” become law.

This rule would give regulators new powers to disconnect or slow down the net connections of persistent illegal file-sharers. Other countries, such as France, are also considering similar laws.

Recently, the EU adopted an internet freedom provision, stating that any measures taken by member states that may affect citizen’s access to or use of the internet “must respect the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens”.

In particular, it states that EU citizens are entitled to a “fair and impartial procedure” before any measures can be taken to limit their net access.

The EU is also committed to providing universal access to broadband. However, like many areas around the world the region is grappling with how to deliver high-speed net access to rural areas where the market is reluctant to go.

Analysts say that is a problem many countries will increasingly have to deal with as citizens demand access to the net.

The BBC survey found that 87% of internet users felt internet access should be the “fundamental right of all people”.

More than 70% of non-users felt that they should have access to the net.

Overall, almost 79% of those questioned said they either strongly agreed or somewhat agreed with the description of the internet as a fundamental right – whether they currently had access or not.

Free speech

Countries such as Mexico, Brazil and Turkey most strongly support the idea of net access as a right, the survey found.

More than 90% of those surveyed in Turkey, for example, stated that internet access is a fundamental right – more than those in any other European Country.

BBC

March 8, 2010