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Written by Dr. Yaman Akdeniz, Associate Professor, Human Rights Law Research Center, Faculty of Law, Istanbul Bilgi University, and Director of Cyber-Rights.Org. (lawya@cyber-rights.org)

Internet censorship is alive and kicking in Turkey with at least 5.000 websites currently being blocked from the country. Some commentators estimate that number to be around 8.000 while the official blocking statistics are currently being kept secret by the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TIB).

While YouTube is the most well known example, several websites are blocked for political reasons (including leftist, and pro-Kurdish news websites) outside the scope of the current law. As was documented by a January 2010 Report of the OSCE on Turkey and Internet Censorship news sites such as Atilim, Özgür Gündem, Keditör, Günlük Gazetesi, and Firat News Agency are blocked indefinitely by the courts. The website of El Mundo, a Spanish newspaper is also currently blocked from Turkey because of a single video clip deemed to be illegal.

In June 2010 the situation in terms of Internet censorship has moved from bad to worse in Turkey as 44 IP addresses jointly used by YouTube and Google were initially blocked by the Telecommunications Communication Presidency, and then by the Ankara’s 1st Criminal Court of Peace. The reason behind the IP address blocking was to make it even harder to access YouTube from Turkey (which was already blocked since May 2008) but the IP blocking paralyzed access to numerous Google related services such as Analytics, Translate, Docs, Books, Map, and Earth. The author of this article together with a fellow academic, Dr. Kerem Altiparmak appealed against the decision of the Court arguing that the blocking of Google related services had no legal basis, remains unlawful, and is regarded as a serious infringement on freedom of speech, and too far-reaching than reasonably necessary in a democratic society. That appeal has been dismissed by the Court and the decision of the Court is final. Having exhausted all the available national remedies an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights is imminent.

So, we marched to protest…
Internet users are known to be glued to their computers and their keyboards, and so far protests have been through Facebook groups, Twitter, and through the popular FriendFeed social network. However, a protest walk was organized by a web based organization called March Against Censorship, and the Istanbul Mayor’s Office was notified by EMO – The Chamber of Electrical Engineers. The whole protest march was organized in less than 10 days but there was lot of media coverage prior to the protest, and social media platforms were extensively used to raise the profile of the event.

Despite it was a weekend day, and really hot, approximately 2000 persons marched against government censorship of the Internet on Saturday, the 17th of July, 2010. The first ever protest march involving Internet censorship started in the popular Taksim Square while the protestors carried a banner that stated “Censorship-free Internet”.

The one hour long march included demonstrators from several civil society organizations, and Internet groups including Cyber-Rights.Org.TR (run by the author of this article), Young Civilians, ‘Sansüre Sansür’ (Censor Censorship), ‘Sansüre Karşı Ortak Platform’ (Joint Platform against Censorship), the satirical Penguen Magazine, Turkish Netizen movement, and INETD – the Internet Technologies Association. Demonstrators had whistles, portable music systems and tambourines.

Several exciting banners coloured the march including “Do not click on our freedom,” “Censorship protects you from the truth,” “Do not touch my porn”, “This placard has been banned by a court order”, “Say no to censorship on political websites,” and “Censorship offends me”.

The anti-censorship protest march ended in the Galatasaray square with a press declaration that called for the abolishment of Law No. 5651 entitled Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Suppression of Crimes Committed by means of Such Publication which forms the basis of the Turkish Internet Censorship Infrastructure.

The demonstrators demanded unrestricted Internet access from the government in the name of freedom of speech and freedom of information. The members of the Joint Platform against Censorship announced that there will be several protest events including marches at the capital city of Ankara, and in Izmir, the third biggest city in Turkey. It remains to be seen whether the government will listen but certainly the users raised their voice, this time in the streets rather than in front of their keyboards.

Posted in Parental Control News No Comments Tags: blocking and filtering, censorship, Google, Turkey, yaman akdeniz, youtube

Political Economy – Morning briefing: China says Google will obey censorship laws, Britain’s deficit shrinks slightly: “China says Google will obey censorship laws, Britain’s deficit shrinks slightly

By Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post, 20.07.2010

*China said Tuesday that Google’s license to operate in the country had been renewed after the company pledged to obey censorship laws.

The remarks were Beijing’s first comments about Google since the search giant shocked the Internet world in January with the announcement that it would end four years of self-censorship and pull out of the country entirely after alleged intrusions into its network by hackers.

In March, Google raised the stakes in its censorship row with China by shutting down its search service in the mainland and redirecting searches to Hong Kong, which is semi-autonomous and enjoys greater freedom of speech.

Zhang Feng, an official with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at a news conference on Tuesday that Google had promised to ‘obey Chinese law’ and avoid linking to material deemed a threat to national security or social stability.

Zhang also talked about Google’s planned ‘rectification and reform,’ referring to the U.S. search company’s decision to stop switching users automatically to its Hong Kong search site. Instead, users arrive at a screen that allows them to click to get to Google Hong Kong. ‘The rectification and reform in the annual application basically conforms to regulation,’ Zhang said.

A Google spokeswoman would not comment directly about Zhang’s remarks but reiterated that ‘the products we are keeping on Google.cn (Music, Translate, Product Search) do not require Google to censor.’ She said Web search is being offered from Google.com.hk without censorship.

‘There is no censorship being done by Google on either domain,’ she said.”

(Via .)

Posted in Parental Control News No Comments Tags: blocking and filtering, censorship, censorship laws, china, Google

BBC News – Pakistan to monitor Google and Yahoo for ‘blasphemy’: “Pakistan to monitor Google and Yahoo for ‘blasphemy’

25.06.2010

Google website – file Pakistan says the main website will be unaffected

Pakistan will start monitoring seven major websites, including Google and Yahoo, for content it deems offensive to Muslims.

YouTube, Amazon, MSN, Hotmail and Bing will also come under scrutiny, while 17 less well-known sites will be blocked.

Officials will monitor the sites and block links deemed inappropriate.

In May, Pakistan banned access to Facebook after the social network hosted a ‘blasphemous’ competition to draw the prophet Muhammad.

The new action will see Pakistani authorities monitor content published on the seven sites, blocking individual pages if content is judged to be offensive.

Telecoms official Khurram Mehran said links would be blocked without disturbing the main website.
Cartoon controversy

The ban on Facebook was lifted after about two weeks, when the site blocked access to the page, called Everybody Draw Muhammad.
Protesters condemn a page of Facebook – May 2010 The Draw Muhammad page on Facebook sparked protests in Pakistan

Facebook itself is not on the new list of websites to be monitored. A number of links from YouTube will be blocked but not the main site itself.

Many Muslims regard depictions of Muhammad, even favourable ones, as blasphemous.

In 2007, the government banned YouTube, allegedly to block material offensive to the government of Pervez Musharraf.

The action led to widespread disruption of access to the site for several hours. The ban was later lifted.

Posted in Parental Control News No Comments Tags: blocking and filtering, censorship, Google, Pakistan, Yahoo, youtube

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Posted in Latest Internet News No Comments Tags: click of a button, Google, Search engines, simple search, web service

Turkish group opens court case over Google services | Reuters

Mon Jun 28, 2010 10:48am EDT

* Thousands of websites blocked in Turkey

* Turkey asking Google for $20 million in taxes

* Row sparks questions over freedom of speech

By Thomas Grove

ISTANBUL, June 28 (Reuters) – A Turkish Internet rights group opened a court case on Monday to end what it says are illegal restrictions on Google services, the latest step in a debate over Internet freedom in Turkey.

Turkey has clashed with Google before and closed down Google’s (GOOG.O) video sharing platform YouTube in 2008 for videos it said insulted the country’s revered founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Internet advocates say efforts to limit access to the video website have caused illegal restrictions on other Google services such as Google Maps and Google Analytics.

‘Millions of Internet users and thousands of companies that use Google services have been victimised,’ said the Internet Technologies Association in a statement sent to the court.

The group says access to Google services has slowed down and in some cases became unavailable after Google Internet Protocol (IP) addresses were blocked in an attempt to hinder access to other websites.

The Internet Technology Association opened a court case against Turkey last year at the European Court of Human Rights over the banning of YouTube, one of thousands of Internet sites that are closed in Turkey, a European Union candidate country.

Turkey wants Google to open an office in Turkey and says the Internet giant owes some $20 million in taxes from revenues generated from the video site.

‘(YouTube) has entered a fight with the Turkish Republic,’ said Communications Minister Binali Yildirim last week.

‘No matter how much of a fuss is made, we will not bow our heads,’ he said in parliament.

Google representatives in Turkey did not respond to requests for comment on the issue.

Turkey’s AK Party government says it has broadened the scope of public debate since taking power in 2002. But curbs on websites have raised concerns. Freedom of speech reforms have ground to a halt in recent years, while the number of closed Internet sites has risen.

As of May 2009 nearly 3,000 Internet sites were closed, according to Turkey’s information technology watchdog, though advocacy groups put the number nearer 5,000.

‘There is no one here in Turkey that makes the effort to protect freedom of expression, there are 60,000 different videos about Turkey in YouTube, and ten have been found to be insulting,’ said Mustafa Akgul, head of the advocacy group and an Internet expert at Bilkent University in Ankara.

Analysts have criticised the ease with which citizens can apply to have an Internet site closed down, with a form readily available on the information technology board’s website.

Most sites in Turkey closed by court order are due to allegations that they encourage suicide, contain libel, child pornography, help users access drugs or promote prostitution. (Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Posted in Parental Control News No Comments Tags: blocking and filtering, censorship, Google, Turkey, youtube