All Content Related to Turkey

Turkey's Capricious Filtering - Just Too Easy

jillian — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:31:33 -0500

Turkey has made headlines lately for its capricious filtering; although previous incidents involved filtering sites which insulted Kemal Ataturk or "Turkishness" in general, lately, the filtering seems nearly impulsive.

A site entitled List of websites blocked by Turkish Telecom...or how Turkey disgraces herself shows that, while many of the blocked sites are pornographic by nature, there are plenty which aren't. One can search by categories on the site: the category entitled "Harun Yahya/Adnan Oktar" refers to Turkish creationist Adnan Oktar, who of late has come under fire in the news for his incessant filtering requests in Turkish courts; another category entitled "Mistake/Overkill" shows that the Turkish Telecom isn't even careful: "imbd.com" appears to be filtered in place of popular film database "imdb.com" (why that site was meant to be filtered in the first place remains unknown).

It seems that the majority of filtered sites not relating to gambling or pornography fall into two categories: those which insult Turkishness (including those insulting Kemal Ataturk) and those which Adnan Oktar has managed to get shut down. As we said earlier, it's amazing that one man has the ability to get so many sites filtered.

The administrator of Mindtrick.net pointed me to a Turkish site to which anyone may submit a filtering request. The site [in Turkish] breaks sites down into nine simple categories, making it simple for anyone to register a complaint.

In other words, anyone could play the role of Adnan Oktar. It seems that, without change, it won't be long until Turkey has censored the entire Internet.

Turkey: Blogger.com blocked?

jillian — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:28:06 -0400

Our friends at Global Voices Advocacy have reported that Blogger.com has been added to the list of sites filtered in Turkey. This latest news of filtering comes on the heels of news that Wordpress.com, Richard Dawkins' web site and Google Groups have all been blocked due to the legal actions of Turkish creationist Adnan Oktar.

Turkish Internet users have been greeted by the following message when trying to access Blogger:

“Access to this website has been suspended in accordance with decision no. 2008/2761 of the TR Diyarbakir First Criminal Court of Peace.”

For more information on filtering in Turkey, check out OpenNet's Turkey page. The OpenNet Initiative's first country profile on Turkey will be published in the coming months.

Image source: Basbasbas.com

Three Easy Steps to Block Sites in Turkey

jillian — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:12:05 -0400

In a clear instance of vexatious litigation, a Turkish court has blocked the Web site of prominent evolutionist Richard Dawkins following complaints from Islamic creationist and author Adnan Oktar. Oktar, who writes under the nom de plume Harun Yahya, filed the complaint last week; when Turkish Internet users now attempt to access Dawkins' site, they are presented with a message that reads: 'access to this site has been suspended in accordance with a court decision'.

This is not the first time Oktar has been involved in such litigation. In April 2007, Oktar successfully filed a defamation complaint against Turkish online news site Eksi sozluk. Oktar filed the complaint because of comments that users of Eksi sozluk had posted about him; a similar site, Superpoligon, was also blocked. Access to Eksi sozluk was restored shortly after the complaints were filed, and the offending remarks removed by the site's administrator.

Less than four months later, Oktar appealed to Wordpress.com to remove a number of blogs which he deemed slanderous. Following an unfavorable reaction from Wordpress, Oktar again filed a complaint with the Turkish judicial system, which in turn blocked Wordpress within Turkey. Oktar's complaint was based on a number of blogs created by rival Edip Yuksel, a prominent dissident. To date, Wordpress remains blocked, despite numerous campaigns to unblock the site. Turkish bloggers now use Wordprexy, a mirror site set up by activist group Great Firewall of Turkey, to read and post to Wordpress blogs. Less than six months later, Oktar filed a complaint against Google Groups, which led to that site being blocked within Turkey as well (Google.com remained accessible; only the subdomain groups.google.com was filtered). It is once again available.

Oktar's latest rancor is directed at Richard Dawkins, a British ethologist and evolutionary biologist. Following the release of Oktar's creationist book, Atlas of Creation, Dawkins wrote on his Web site:

"I am at a loss to reconcile the expensive and glossy production values of this book with the breathtaking inanity of the content."

Oktar, who was involved in the attempt to ban Dawkins' book The God Delusion in Turkey, retaliated by filing a complaint in regards to Dawkins' Web site. A Turkish judicial court sided with Oktar, and ordered Turk Telecom to ban the site.

In each instance, the foreign press was quick to assume that the blockings were related to Turkey's rising Islamist party, the AKP. It is perhaps more alarming that politics had little to do with it. It is surprising that Oktar, considered a charlatan by the Turkish public, and having so recently run afoul of the law, carries so much weight in the Turkish judicial system.

In fact, Oktar carries neither more nor less weight than anyone else. According to a recent Reuters article, a law passed in May now allows the Telecommunications Directorate to close down websites based on complaints by individual users, thus enabling anyone with a complaint to get a site blocked. The problem therefore lies in the ease with which anyone can file such a complaint.

On Oktar's Web site, HarunYahya.com, there is a quote from the Qur'an: "Truth has come and falsehood has vanished. Falsehood is always bound to vanish." If Dawkins' work is the falsehood Oktar is referencing, then indeed he has succeeded in making it "vanish"...if only from the Turkish Internet.

Turkey and YouTube: A Contentious Relationship

jillian — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:44:24 -0400

Turkey has a contentious relationship with popular video-sharing site YouTube. Blocked for the first time in early 2007, YouTube was intermittently available for most of 2007, only to be banned again in January of 2008.

Each time, the block has been in response to political videos. In the case of the most recent block, the videos were said to have insulted Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey; insulting Ataturk is a crime, as is "insulting Turkishness" under the controversial Article 301 of Turkey's penal code.

Turkey is not the only country to block YouTube. According to Rob Faris, Research Director of the Berkman Center, the site has been blocked in various countries over the past two years, including Armenia, Brazil, Burma, China, Indonesia, Iran, Morocco, Pakistan, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. In the cases of several of the aforementioned countries, the site was inaccessible for only a short time; in others, it remains so.

So while there's nothing unique about a government blocking YouTube, the case of Turkey is different for two reasons: The first is that the government was explicit with users as to why the site was blocked; according to The New Anatolian, visitors to the site are greeted with a message in Turkish and English which reads: "Access to www.youtube.com site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2008/55 of T.R. Ankara 12th Criminal Court of Peace." In most other countries, the censorship is more surreptitious, with the government giving little explanation as to the reasons for the block.

What is most unique about this case, however, is what has unfolded over the past month. On August 18, Deborah Ann Dilley of Global Voices Online reported that Turkish bloggers have been protesting the blocks by self-censoring their own sites. According to Dilley, bloggers put up a message reading "Bu siteye eri?im kendi karar?yla engellenmi?tir," which translates roughly into “This site is blocked by [the author's] own choice”. TechCrunch picked up the story, drawing global attention to the protest.

While bloggers were uncertain that the protest would have any effect on the YouTube ban, it was widely reported on Tuesday that the site had been unblocked in Turkey. Turkey's Telecommunications Press Center stated that "Because the content which caused YouTube to be blocked by Ankara's 11th High Criminal Court without any justification was taken off from YouTube, the court decided to permit access to the Web site. YouTube is now online."

As bloggers undoubtedly prepared to rejoice, however, the Telecommunications Press Center rescinded their announcement, stating on their web site that "Several media organs reported that YouTube was accessible from Turkey. These news stories are incorrect and serve to confuse the public. The YouTube Web site was blocked by a court decision and the ban can only be rescinded by another court decision."

Fréderike Geerdink, a Dutch journalist based in Turkey, expressed disappointment in her blog, remarking "Now I see that newspapers have been copying each other’s news without calling anybody in Turkey to just ask if they could access the site again. They would have said: No, youtube is still off-line. And then today’s press anouncement would not have been necessary either: it was officially stated that youtube was still banned."

And yet, news reports reporting YouTube to be unbanned keep coming in; ONI will continue reporting on this story as we learn more about it.

Experts Hold Workshop to Discuss Turkey's Growing Censorship

amina — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:17:08 -0400

A group of people gathered in the northwest mountains of Turkey last week – and it wasn’t to cheer on the national football team in the Euro 2008 Cup.

The Eurasia Daily Monitor reports that a group of lawyers, academics, and Internet professionals gathered in Abant, Turkey on June 18 and 19 to discuss the country’s growing Internet censorship. These experts aimed to “define the border between societal values and individual freedoms,” Today’s Zaman details. The two-day workshop, sponsored by the Ankar Bar Association and turk.internet.com, convened in an attempt to find solutions for the disturbing frequency by which the Turkish government has been blocking Web sites, especially in the last year. So far, YouTube and several blogs - reportedly including the CNN Political Ticker - were blocked.

Turkey’s censorship policies have been coming under fire since the government adopted Internet Publication Law No. 5651 in 2007, which includes stricter guidelines for what is deemed appropriate online content. The most noteworthy of these stipulations is one which has remained a constant feature of the country’s legislation since 1951: the prohibition of denigrating the memory of the Republic of Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – a crime which has landed several journalists in prison over the years.

Sure, there are many other governments which censor online content, and an even greater number that target printed materials criticizing government officials or celebrated religious or cultural figures. Article 301 of Turkey’s penal code – which criminalizes dissenting opinions of “Turkishness” or the “Republic” - makes it no different from such countries. What does make it different, however, is its geopolitical position. Not only is it a state which some political theorists would call a “democracy in transition,” but it seems to be perpetually straddled both geographically and politically between several divergent forces: East and West, Religious and Secular, and now, it hinges on a delicate balance between having a “mostly free and open internet” and one which extensively “filters the content that their citizens see” – as John Palfrey noted in February.

The fact remains, however, that the Turkish government has been censoring its citizens for a long time – especially in the arts or regarding discussions of the Armenian Genocide – using Ataturk’s founding philosophy of “one nation, one language, one history, one culture” as a premise for extreme censorship practices both through legislative and judicial acts (acts which, by the way, could harm its chances of joining the EU.) Yet, whether the challenge Turkey faces is really about “societal values and individual freedoms,” or the tension between its religious roots and secular ambitions, meetings such as the one in Abant are crucial building blocks in affecting which way the country will lean regarding Internet filtering.

The Cat-and-Mouse Game in the Turkish Cyberspace

vessy — Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

YouTube was blocked again in Turkey on May 6, 2008 following an Ankara court order. YouTube has been banned a number of times in the last two years, usually because of videos offensive to the country hero Kemal Ataturk or to the broadly defined “Turkishness”. Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code, which criminalizes activities insulting “Turkishness”, is one of the most debated provisions in the Code, and has been widely used by the Criminal Courts of Peace to regulate online activities. Any such offensive video is sufficient to trigger prosecutor’s office reaction despite YouTube’s previously expressed agreement to take down offensive videos if advised in advance, as noted by UK Times Online (here).

Most of the court rulings remain hidden from the public eye. One of the reasons for this is the recent change in the Attorneys’ Law in Turkey, which restricts, in this type of cases, the right to make a copy of a court decision available to only the parties. This provides leeway for speculation on the grounds of these decisions and makes it difficult for other Web sites to understand how they can fully comply with the law.

ONI research has shown that usually the court grounds its rulings on the Turkey Internet Law that sanctions criminal activities committed online and on a number of other laws, including the Criminal Code and the Law on Crimes Against Ataturk. The Telecommunications Regulatory Agency is not always made aware of the ban prior to its implementation. Instead, the main ISP in the country, TurkTelecom, implements the ruling directly and sometimes other ISPs may be requested to block the site as well. As a result, most often the content providers and site owners hear of the court proceedings and eventual ban only after their site has been blocked. (For example, see previous bans on WordPress and YouTube).

In addition, an individual claim may be sufficient to cause a ban of a whole site: a recent GoogleGroups ban, according to ONI research, was enforced following an individual claim that a blogger posted a defamatory comment on the server against the claimant.

The most recent YouTube ban, however, has been executed by the Telecommunications Agency following a court decision; specific reasons for the ruling remain unknown. The block page says in English and Turkish “YouTube was blocked by Telekomünikasyon ?leti?im Ba?kanl???, according to the order of Ankara 11. Sulh Ceza Mahkemesi, April 24, 2008 of 2008/468." Interestingly, on several occasions when access to YouTube was attempted, the connection timed out.

A number of sites has been blocked in Turkey for the last months, including P2P sites, live stream sport sites, CNN blogger, military, and forum sites. Some of the blocks remain even after the domain names expire.

In January was ordered a ban on Slide.com, which was executed days later. A site representative confirmed to an ONI researcher that Slide had not received any official notice from the Turkish court regarding his issue. Apparently, other services of Slide.com were also blocked, including the FunWall and SuperPoke applications on Facebook. The Turkish users received a block message when attempting to access these services.

According to Reuters, cited by Turkishdaily.com, the Slide.com team had to find a way to help users within Turkey regain access to their services. The Slide's site and its applications are available now but the number of sites blocked or threatened to be blocked in Turkey is rapidly growing.

Turkey's challenge in content controls

sally — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:48:10 -0500

Turkey's largest English-language newspaper, the Turkish Daily News, ran an op-ed by John Palfrey and Jonathan Zittrain today, on the future of the Net and the risk to freedoms of speech and expression. They write:
In Turkey, the Internet has been largely free from government controls. Free expression and innovation have found homes online, in ways that benefit culture and the economy.
But there are signs that this freedom may be nearing its end, just as the benefits to be reaped are growing. When the state chooses to ban entire services for the many because of the acts of the few, the threat to innovation and creativity is high. Those states that have erected extensive censorship and surveillance regimes online have found them hard to implement with any degree of accuracy and fairness. And, more costly, the chilling effect on citizens who rely on the digital world for their livelihood and key aspects of their culture - in fact, the ability to remake their own cultural objects - is a high price to pay for control.

The impact of the choice Turkey makes today will be felt over decades and generations. Turkey's choice also has international ramifications. If Turkey decides to clamp down on Internet activity, it will be lending aid to those who seek to see the Internet chopped into a series of local networks - the China Wide Web, the Iran Wide Web, and so forth - rather than continuing to build a truly World Wide Web. For Turkey, and for the global community, the Internet is worth saving.
Palfrey and Zittrain will take up these issues in a discussion at Harvard next Friday, as part of our celebration of the release of Access Denied, ONI's new book. Zittrain also explores these risks and challenges in his new book, The Future of the Internet - and How to Stop It, available in April.

thoughts from Turkey

sally — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:07:17 -0500

John Palfrey is in Turkey this week, discussing many of the difficult issues surrounding filtering. Read his thoughts here, "Turkey at the Edge".