Turkey heading for religious cyber-censorship

Skybird · 12-04-09, 04:46 PM

According to a German article in Die Welt,
http://www.welt.de/webwelt/article54...vom-Staat.html
Turkey's new-born babies will get an email-adress from the near future on, which also is printed into the passport and ID papers. It should be valid for a lifetime. The already existing population should follow. At the same time, foreign services like Google, Yahoo and others will be forbidden and banned.

Controls of ID papers are common in Turkey, and citizens are required by law to always carry their papers with them. Since the state-given email-adress (featuring 10 GB webspace) not only should supress foreign influence in the internet in turkey, but should also be used for written communication between the state and the citizens, as well as amongst the citizens themselves, police controls of ID paper in the future could include a check of persons' internet communication as well, to see if they are ignoring letters by state offices - and to check their personal emails.

Turkey already runs a huge program to monitor the internet. thousands of pages commonly used in other countries, are banned. the turkish state says the initiative raises Turkey'S national security, since currently all emial traffic runs via servers in foreign countries. But it must be feared that it also means increasing censorship (which already is note rare). If the planned additonal state-run services must be used in Turkey to send emails, this means that security agencies can easily co-read personal mails. the feared raise in censorship is motivated by the creeping fundamentalising of the country by Erdogan's AKP. They also plan a state-run islam-compatible search engine to replace Google, that will automaically surpoess and fileer all content that is seen as unislamic and as an offence to Islam or Muhammad. Such an search-engine already exists, but currently attracts only few visitors, the german article says. the planned initiative will make the use of it mandatory, since foreign services will be terminated by the state.

Turkey is the country that just days ago called the Swiss a fascist country that is commiting crimes against humanity. It wants into the EU, where it would become one of the most powerful nations, due to its population size (biggest in the EU, then) and the formula of the EU favouring population size in EU votes, at the same time being one of the weakest economies in and finacial contributors to the EU. The Turkish president Erdogan has called Turkish migrants in Germany to actively resist integration.

Earlier this year I was told that the Turkish religion ministry is preparing such a move. But it was unreliable, personal report only. I thought the guy telling me, a Turkish ex-collegue of mine, is kidding. It seems he was not. At least it sheds some light on where this initiave really is coming from.

Right now, they already have bans of websites and censorship of "offending" content, but not so systematically as they plan to do it now. Right now, there are loopholes the knowing mind and the informed amateur can use. This is planned to become impossible in the future, if the religious fundamentalists around Erdogan get their way.

I could imagine the EU to follow in some not too far away future, regarding the banning of Islam-critical content. That would truly improve relationships with Islamic countries. The EU already has made criticism of religion in general and islam in special a crime, labelling it discrimination.

12-04-09, 04:46 PM	#1
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 42,602 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	Turkey heading for religious cyber-censorship According to a German article in Die Welt, http://www.welt.de/webwelt/article54...vom-Staat.html Turkey's new-born babies will get an email-adress from the near future on, which also is printed into the passport and ID papers. It should be valid for a lifetime. The already existing population should follow. At the same time, foreign services like Google, Yahoo and others will be forbidden and banned. Controls of ID papers are common in Turkey, and citizens are required by law to always carry their papers with them. Since the state-given email-adress (featuring 10 GB webspace) not only should supress foreign influence in the internet in turkey, but should also be used for written communication between the state and the citizens, as well as amongst the citizens themselves, police controls of ID paper in the future could include a check of persons' internet communication as well, to see if they are ignoring letters by state offices - and to check their personal emails. Turkey already runs a huge program to monitor the internet. thousands of pages commonly used in other countries, are banned. the turkish state says the initiative raises Turkey'S national security, since currently all emial traffic runs via servers in foreign countries. But it must be feared that it also means increasing censorship (which already is note rare). If the planned additonal state-run services must be used in Turkey to send emails, this means that security agencies can easily co-read personal mails. the feared raise in censorship is motivated by the creeping fundamentalising of the country by Erdogan's AKP. They also plan a state-run islam-compatible search engine to replace Google, that will automaically surpoess and fileer all content that is seen as unislamic and as an offence to Islam or Muhammad. Such an search-engine already exists, but currently attracts only few visitors, the german article says. the planned initiative will make the use of it mandatory, since foreign services will be terminated by the state. Turkey is the country that just days ago called the Swiss a fascist country that is commiting crimes against humanity. It wants into the EU, where it would become one of the most powerful nations, due to its population size (biggest in the EU, then) and the formula of the EU favouring population size in EU votes, at the same time being one of the weakest economies in and finacial contributors to the EU. The Turkish president Erdogan has called Turkish migrants in Germany to actively resist integration. Earlier this year I was told that the Turkish religion ministry is preparing such a move. But it was unreliable, personal report only. I thought the guy telling me, a Turkish ex-collegue of mine, is kidding. It seems he was not. At least it sheds some light on where this initiave really is coming from. Right now, they already have bans of websites and censorship of "offending" content, but not so systematically as they plan to do it now. Right now, there are loopholes the knowing mind and the informed amateur can use. This is planned to become impossible in the future, if the religious fundamentalists around Erdogan get their way. I could imagine the EU to follow in some not too far away future, regarding the banning of Islam-critical content. That would truly improve relationships with Islamic countries. The EU already has made criticism of religion in general and islam in special a crime, labelling it discrimination. __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert. Last edited by Skybird; 12-04-09 at 05:09 PM.