In a press statement issued by Internet Society CEO Kathy Brown expressed her deep concern over the current censorship of internet access in Turkey. Through a press release issued on march 31st 2014, She appealed the turkey government to immediately restore full access.
In her press statement she says, “We are deeply concerned with recent reports that the Turkish government is mandating curtailed access to key social media sites for millions of users across Turkey. Recent actions to implement the Turkish government’s requirement include the redirection of network routes so that Turkish citizens are not getting the correct information from the Domain Name System (DNS). They are instead being redirected to other web sites controlled by Turkish service providers. In addition to undermining core technical functions of the Internet’s architecture, such actions also threaten the users’ fundamental human right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas across frontiers.”
“We strongly urge the Turkish Government to stop requiring the blocking of access to social media sites and to allow full Internet access to all Turkish citizens immediately. We believe that the opportunity to participate in the global information society should never be taken away from individuals.The Internet Society hopes that nations around the world will come to understand that blocking citizens’ access to the tools of online communication only serves to fuel discord and is not the way to address the underlying concerns of their citizens. Such measures can only undermine citizens’ trust in their government’s ability to provide an enabling Internet environment for economic and social progress,” she added.
Open internet is the need and requirement of all, today it has adopted the basic form of any individual. Censorship and unnecessary restriction or attempts to curtail privacy is not just a question of debate, but it has been termed absolute misuse of power and illegal unless and until in cases of national security or sovereignty.
The 17th session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, UN Special Rapporteur Frank La Rue from Guatemala called for the governments of the world to protect citizens’ access to the internet as a key tool for enabling their human rights. Open and anonymous online discourse has rapidly become one of the driving forces of political change around the world.
Accessnow.org one of the leading organization advocating open internet voices has launched a new campaign “They are trying to kill the internet in Turkey Again”. “The Turkish government declared war on the open internet. Last week, the Turkish government took Twitter offline for millions of Turkish users. Over the weekend, Turkish authorities started shutting down workarounds that allowed users to communicate via Twitter. Now Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the blocking of YouTube in Turkey. This all part of Erdogan’s long running battle against the free and open internet in Turkey, coming less than a month after the passing of a harsh new internet censorship law. Turkey already has more imprisoned journalists than any other country in the world. Now it’s government is trying to silence the internet as well. Turkey needs more transparency, not less. It needs to expand public discourse, not limit it. An open and unrestricted internet is a key part of democratic societies that respect human rights. Help protect the open internet in Turkey by telling Prime Minister Erdogan: The world is watching, the Turkish government must unblock Twitter and YouTube, and keep the internet free and open.”
The concept of open internet is closely associated with net neutrality that drives the core of internet dynamics. It’s not just about individual choices and preferences, but it’s about the principle of giving rights to public in view of their freedom of expression.
Amidst the outrage of protest following the series of web activism after the aftermath of Iran’s election protests, WikiLeaks scandals, Egyptian revolutions etc. the world has seen a new wave of freedom of expression. It is not just the voices of the unheard but these content created in the form of blogs, tweets and posts have taken down leadership and government making it clear that internet is not just a right, but it’s a powerful tool against prejudices, censorship, impunity and suppression where the world units in and against any forces prevailing against it.
