Tag: google

Russia threatens to ban Google, Twitter, Facebook

By Cory Bennett

Russia is warning Google, Twitter and Facebook that they could be banned in the country if they don’t agree to hand over data on Russian bloggers and allow the Kremlin to block certain websites, Reuters reported.

Moscow claims failure to do so would violate Russian Internet laws that President Vladimir Putin promotes as security measures, but critics say amount to censorship.

A spokesman for Russia’s media watchdog said the three firms use encryption technology that prohibits the government from blocking sites that promote “unsanctioned protests and unrest,” which is allowed under Moscow’s Internet laws.

The laws also mandate that companies turn over data on any Russian bloggers with more than 3,000 readers per day.

The media oversight agency wrote each company, pressing them to comply with these dicta.

“In our letters we regularly remind [companies] of the consequences of violating the legislation,” the spokesman, Vadim Ampelonsky, told Reuters.

Russia has passed a series of Internet control laws in recent years.

The Kremlin granted itself the power to remove, without court order, sites promoting unauthorized protests. Another law requires popular bloggers to register with the government.

It’s not clear how Google, Twitter and Facebook will respond to the request.

According to transparency reports from the three tech firms, they have previously rejected most, if not all, of Moscow’s requests for specific user data.

“We realize they are registered under U.S. jurisdiction,” Ampelonsky said. “But I think in this case they should demonstrate equal respect to national legislation.”

thehill.com, 22.05.2015

May 23, 2015
Google-Backed Report Says Turkey’s Online Business Will Surge

Turkey’s Internet economy will probably grow at 19 percent a year until 2017 as Turkish companies embrace Web-based business, according to a report sponsored by Google Inc. (GOOG)

Turkey’s Internet economy will grow to 2.6 percent of gross domestic product, or 64.3 billion liras ($35.7 billion), by 2017 from 1.7 percent and 22 billion liras in 2011, Boston Consulting Group Inc. said in the report. In 2011, Turkish consumers spent about 8.8 billion liras on Internet access and charges, and more than 4.4 billion liras on e-commerce.

“Consumption is expected to be the largest driver of growth, primarily through an increase in e-commerce following a rise in broadband and Internet user penetration,” according to the report.

In a more optimistic case, with broadband penetration and smartphone retailing at the upper end of expectations, the figure in 2017 may reach 76.4 billion liras, or 3 percent of GDP, similar to current levels in Germany or France, according to the report. About 47 percent of people in Turkey use the Internet, less than the European Union level of 71 percent, the report showed.

via Google-Backed Report Says Turkey’s Online Business Will Surge – Bloomberg.

March 12, 2013
Turkey to block access to the Hate Film which brought chaos to the world

ANKARA, Turkey — A Turkish court issued an order on Wednesday allowing authorities in the country to block Internet access to the anti-Islam movie that has sparked violent protests across the Muslim world, an official said.

Binali Yildirim, the minister in charge of transportation and communications, told state-run TRT television that the injunction allows government telecommunications and information technology authorities to prevent access from Turkey to URL links to the film.

The move came a day after another government minister said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who heads an AK Party* party, ordered officials to find ways of preventing access to videos of “Innocence of Muslims” movie.

Dozens of people, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, have been killed in violence linked to protests over the film.

“Henceforth, it will not be shown in our country,” said Yildirim, calling the film “disgusting.”

“To insult what is sacred, to incite indignation is unacceptable for all religions. It is a hate crime and no crime should go unpunished,” Yildirim said. His office said Tuesday that the ministry has also asked Google Inc. and YouTube to remove the videos.

Erdogan has criticized Western nations for not taking steps to prevent insults to Islamic values but also has criticized violent protests against the film saying they harm Islam.

Yildirim said the court order is limited to links to the film and that access to websites that carry the links would not be blocked. Turkey banned access to the video sharing site YouTube from 2008 and 2010 because of videos deemed insulting to the country’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Thousands of other websites, most of them pornographic, have also been banned in the country. The government says it is fighting child pornography, illegal gambling and other cybercrimes.

CBS NEWS

Edited*

September 26, 2012
Turkey to send 10 techno entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley

Turkey to send 10 techno entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley

Speaking to the AA after his visits in the Silicon Valley, Ergun said that Turkey would send groups of 10 young Turkish techno entrepreneurs to the Silicon Valley for periods of up to 3 months.

Turkish Science, Industry and Technology Minister Nihat Ergun visited Apple Corporation and Google in San Francisco’s Silicon Valley on Monday.

Speaking to the AA after his visits in the Silicon Valley, Ergun said that Turkey would send groups of 10 young Turkish techno entrepreneurs to the Silicon Valley for periods of up to 3 months.

“These young Turks can stay at the Silicon Valley for three months. They can develop their software here. They will have a chance to make presentations to the executives of giant corporations at the Silicon Valley. I believe that this is a crucial opportunity to open up to the world. We will bear all expenses of the young Turkish entrepreneurs. We will begin sending groups of Turks to the Silicon Valley as of 2012,” Ergun stressed.

AA

December 6, 2011
Google Refused Law Enforcement Request To Pull Police Brutality Video

A U.S. law enforcement agency petitioned Google to take down a YouTube video showing police brutality, the web giant revealed in a new report.

Google said it refused the request, placed sometime between January and June of this year, though it did not specify why.

“We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove YouTube videos of police brutality, which we did not remove,” Google wrote in its Transparency Report. “Separately, we received requests from a different local law enforcement agency for removal of videos allegedly defaming law enforcement officials. We did not comply with those requests, which we have categorized in this Report as defamation requests.”

Of the 757 items that Google was asked to remove by the U.S. government in the first half of 2011, eighty percent were motivated by allegations of defamation.

The company complied with 63 percent of the U.S. government’s requests. Google noted that it may decline to comply with requests to remove content because an agency has failed to obtain a court order.

“Some requests may not [be] specific enough for us to know what the government wanted us to remove (for example, no URL is listed in the request), and others involve allegations of defamation through informal letters from government agencies rather than a court orders [sic],” Google wrote. “We generally rely on courts to decide if a statement is defamatory according to local law.”

The Atlantic’s Rebecca Rosen praised Google for its decision to deny the law enforcement agency’s request, arguing that the move sets a powerful precedent:

With this report, Google seems to be indicating that users who post such videos have the company’s protection. In places like Egypt and Tunisia, the spread of videos portraying government brutality seems to have galvanized protesters. If Google were to take down such videos, that could have a powerful detrimental effect on the Occupy movement.

TechCrunch likewise suggests Google is attempting to send a message both to users and to governments in an attempt to position itself as a trustworthy resource:

I think that in this time of turmoil, Google is saying very quietly what it wouldn’t really be tactful to say loudly: “Put your sensitive and controversial video data here.” Certainly a site like LiveLeak is also an option, but YouTube finds itself the center of attention more frequently, and being more of a popular culture community, it wants to emphasize its legitimacy in matters like this. The transparency report is a way for them to encourage users to trust them, and perhaps, governments to respect them.

Between January and June 2011, American government entities filed 5,950 requests for information on Google users, 93 percent of which the company complied with.

The U.S. topped charts as the government that placed the third highest number of content removal requests, behind Brazil and Germany, but ahead of China. The U.S. also put in more requests for user data than any other country in the world.

via Google Refused Law Enforcement Request To Pull Police Brutality Video.

October 31, 2011
Google boss visits Turkey

Eric Schmidt, the chairman of the executive board of one of the giants of the Internet search engines, Google arrived in Turkey yesterday.

Eric Schmidt

Schmidt who met in Istanbul former Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım and the editors in chief of major newspapers broached the issue of the Internet filter due to be implemented in Turkey as of August 22.

Schmidt will proceed to Ankara where he will be received by President Abdullah Gul.

The Internet filter set to come into effect in Turkey in two months’ time and the yet-unconcluded tax issue are expected to be the subjects the two are to concentrate on.

Operational in Turkey via its advertisement arnd marketing office, Google has some problems with the Finance Ministry over taxing.

Getting advertisements from Turkish companies but rejecting to be a tax-payer in Turkey, Google has been fined 71 million TL, though it has made good use of a recently introduced legislation and lowered its debt to 35 million liras, which it is going to repay in 18 installments.

via News.Az – Google boss visits Turkey.

June 22, 2011