Thousands of Turks took to the streets and the Web yesterday to protest against Government proposals to limit Internet access.
Expected to come into effect on 22 August, the measures would require users to choose one of four filters before accessing the Internet. The family, children, domestic or standard filters will result in different levels of filtering. The list of websites that will be blocked by each filter is classified, said Reporters Without Borders.
“This measure is a complete violation of both the European Convention on Human Right and Turkey’s own constitution,” Reporters Without Borders said earlier this month. “Everyone should be guaranteed unrestricted access to the Internet.”
The Turkish government previously abandoned a plan in April to filter content based on 138 keywords.
In a petition on Avaaz.org, an online forum for mobilising support for a cause, petitioners called on the Communications Technologies Authority (BTK) to withdraw any regulations that include mandatory content filtering for Internet users in Turkey, and immediately reverse the new “Rules and Procedures on the Safe Use of the Internet”.
Under the new rules, BTK would have total control over which websites are blocked under the filters and could add or remove sites without users’ knowledge, potentially giving it the power to arbitrarily ban thousands of websites.
Social media websites like Facebook and Twitter have been widely credited with playing a direct role in the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ that has seen the governments of Tunisia and Egypt fall this year.
Niall Kitson
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