TURKEY tr-politics
New web rules 'benefit users,' Turkish official says
ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News | 5/5/2011 12:00:00 AM |
Responding to criticism that the online-filtering regulation set to be implemented this summer would turn the Internet into a government-controlled structure, a Turkish official says the control will be in the users' hands. Tayfun Acerer, head of the Prime Ministry’s Information Technologies Board, or BTK, says, ‘The new regulations are for the benefit of the users’
Internet users in Turkey will be able to control what sites – if any – are filtered based on their content, a Turkish official said Thursday amid controversy about an online-filtering regulation set to be implemented this summer.
The new Internet content-filtering packages will only limit access to websites that users specify and users that want to roam the Web freely can do so under the standard package, said Tayfun Acerer, the head of the Prime Ministry’s Information Technologies Board, or BTK.
“The new regulations were a result of requests we have received from users for a long time,” Acerer said, emphasizing that no online access would be limited or filtered unless users sign up for specific packages themselves.
The new regulations are for the benefit of users and were announced in February, he added, telling the Anatolia news agency, “The only reason I can explain [the issue] being brought up now is for political reasons [ahead of the election].”
Under a decision on “Rules and Procedures of the Safety of Internet Use,” approved by the BTK in February, Internet users in Turkey will have to choose one of four Internet packages: family, children, domestic or standard. The “children” package will be the most restrictive, while the domestic package will block international websites on the grounds that most banned websites, such as those with child pornography, are hosted by other countries.
The change will be implemented starting Aug. 22.
The news portal Bianet.org has filed a complaint to the Council of State, arguing that existing Turkish legislation gives the BTK no authority to make and enforce such a decision. According to the Washington-based advocacy group Freedom House, Internet censorship is on the rise in Turkey, where around 5,000 websites have been banned since 2001.
The BTK’s decision has prompted a public and media uproar, and has been criticized as a way of “ending the Internet” through censorship, a claim with which Acerer disagreed during his press conference Thursday.
“If we define the current structure of the Internet as the standard profile, then the changes can be seen as an addition to the current structure,” Acerer said. He added that the BTK would decide the cost for subscribing to a particular package, but the actual transfer will be free of charge.
“Users can either choose to continue with their current profile, or switch to another package,” Acerer said, adding that the standard package will apply by default and that users who want to switch to another package will have to request it.
Republican People’s Party, or CHP, deputy leader Emrehan Halıcı said Thursday that the new regulations “are the death warrant of the Internet in Turkey.”
Some 400,000 people are expected to gather in several provinces in Turkey to protest the BTK and its filter plan. The rally in Istanbul will take place on İstiklal Avenue at Galatasaray Square on May 15, bearing the catchphrase “Don’t touch my Internet.”
The protesters who remain dissatisfied with BTK Chairman Acarer’s comments have organized the rally via a Facebook event page and classified it as an event “open to everyone.” Over a million people are still in the waiting to decide whether they will participate in the rally or not. The protests are expected to keep growing and continue until Aug. 22, the so-called “Date of Internet’s death.”