[Air-L] The Internet Censorship is Getting Deeper in Turkey

[F. Mutlu Binark]

The law proposal and its justification, which has been presented to the
presidency of the Turkish Parliament by the approval of Justice and
Development Party about the change in “The regulation of internet-based
broadcasting and the struggle with crimes that are committed via these
broadcasting” is a threatening text in many ways. The motion, which is
expected to be passed inattentively within an omnibus bill will not solve
the existing problems. It includes suggestions that would deteriorate the
current status.

Firstly, at the justification part of the motion, there is not a reference
to the decision of European Human Rights Court against Turkey with regard
to this law (no. 5651). This decision, which has been made as a
consequence of Ahmet Yıldırım Case that Alternative Informatics
Association took it to the EHRC, approved the opposition of this law
against freedom of expression. What Internet users need in Turkey is a
reform of this law in terms of rights and freedoms and all of the access
restrictions should be excluded from the regulations. However, the motion
suggests the exact opposite by centralizing and empowering the access
restrictions.

The motion also pays no attention to the views of NGOs, which are
important actors of the subject. Each NGO that work within the informatics
field in Turkey is strongly criticizing this law. Moreover, not only NGOs
but also a great number of lawyers, bureaucrats, politicians and internet
publishers also criticize the law. In contrast to the motion, they do not
consider access restrictions as a solution.

It’s really sad to see the motion uses “the discrimination card” to
justify the restrictions. Censorship never should be considered as a
solution to solve racism, hatred speech and sexism. Since we have lots of
examples of how the government interprets and enforces this kind of laws
in the recent history of Turkey, we’re concerned that this justification
will cause much more dangerous enforcements in the next days.

The motion proposes to apply the IP and URL based access restriction
methods along with the domain name restriction which is the current
restriction method in Turkey. Also the motion adds the term of “et cetera”
to define the restrictions which may help the government to easily apply
different and dangerous restriction methods. As if IP and URL based access
restriction methods aren’t scary and dangerous enough! Applying the URL
based access restriction method actively; the internet censorship level in
Turkey will reach the internet censorship level in China in a few years.
To achieve these methods the ISPs will have to make some changes and
configurations on their systems which will lead us to a slow, controlling
and monitored Internet.

On the other hand The ISP Union proposition will threaten net neutrality
and help large companies to entirely dominate the market. Only the
companies with the proper ban and control utilities can be a member of
this unity and the other non-member companies cannot able to provide
internet services anymore which leads some of them to file for bankruptcy
and hand the market in to the big players. Decreasing agent numbers on the
market will help the government to control and monitor users much more
easily. Rising of the controlling and surveillance because of the Weak
compotation on the market will be a threat for our rights and freedoms and
especially for net neutrality.

The projected period for the ISPs to retain data is 1-2 years which is a
very long period. The Government’s need for retaining data for this long,
brings to mind the possibility of using the data to profile people for
various purposes or even worse to tag them. Considering all the subjects
we mentioned above, it’s safe to say this regulation will make the
situation much more worse. We believe that amending Law No: 5651 will only
empower the parts of the law which are criticized by the people for a very
long time.

As we stated in our Association’s “The State of Internet in Turkey in 2013
Report” [1] what should be done, is not to extend censorship and banning
policies but to bridge digital divide, to popularize the usage of internet
and to improve the new media literacy.

As the Alternative Informatics Association we are in the favor of a freer
and less controlled internet where people freely express themselves and
access all the information they need without any surveillance.
Unfortunately this regulation ignores the objectivity of the networks,
makes it easier to restrict the freedom of speech, controlling and
surveillance on the internet by establishing monopoly. Carrying a motion
with this content will cause the internet in Turkey to plunge into the
darkness permanently.

We invite the members of the parliament who legislate law in behalf of
internet users, the users, NGOs who represent them and the subject matter
experts to consider the verdict of (ECHR).

We also invite our citizens to look after the Internet and to support the
events actively which will be held Worldwide against censorship, control
and surveillance acts.

January 6th 2014
www.alternatifbilisim.org


-- 
Prof.Dr. Mutlu Binark
Baskent Universitesi
Iletisim Fakultesi
Radyo-Tv. ve Sinema Blm.
Bagl�ca Kampusu
Eskisehir Yolu 20.km.
06530 Ankara
Tel: (312) 246 6652-53
Fax: (312) 246 66 57
www.yenimedya.wordpress.com
www.dijitaloyun.wordpress.com
alternatifbilisim.tv




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