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BIAnet.org, Turkey
Dec 7 2012
Google Report Reveals Turkish Government's Biggest Fears
Turkey is topping the list in the number content ban requests among
OECD countries, with most complaint made on state criticism and porn.
A. Murat Eren
Every six months Google releases reports concerning content ban
requests from national governments. Yesterday I came across the latest
report for 2012.
Turkish web users would not be surprised to see that Turkey made the
most ban requests in the world, I guess. Though, it is still tragic to
see Turkey only topping the list among OECD countries when it comes to
"content ban requests" and not when it comes to criteria such as
education, health, employment, etc. But hold on. There is more.
Google divided all ban requests into categories like "slander", "hate
crime", "violence", "national security" and "state criticism". I think
you can see where I am heading. I checked why countries made their ban
requests. And obviously, Turkey topped the list for "state criticism"!
The worse is that when we look at other countries, "state criticism"
requests are hardly the top priority. The complaint hardly finds its
itself in country lists such as UK (#7), France (#10), Germany (#9),
Spain (#7), US (#7) and India (#6).
This made me curious about what ban requests were made by other
countries. It's not appropriate to make any of ban requests anyway but
it is an interesting way to see what preoccupies governments all over
the world.
Here are the results:
* US: "Slander", "Privacy and Security"
* Argentina: "Slander", "Privacy and Security"
* Canada: "Slander", "Privacy and Security"
* Germany: "Slander", "Hate Speech"
* Italy: "Slander", "Copyrights"
* Japan: "Slander", "Privacy and Security"
* France: "Privacy and Security", "Slander",
* UK: "National Security", "Privacy and Security"
* Australia: "Privacy and Security", "Copyrights"
* Russia: "National Security", "Slander"
* Spain: "Privacy and Security", "Slander"
* Holland: "Slander", "Privacy and Security"
* Brazil: "Copyrights", "Slander"
* Hong Kong: "Copyrights"
* India: "Privacy and Security", "Slander"
* South Korea: "Privacy and Security", "Slander"
What about Turkey? Here's Turkey's most frequent ban requests:
* Turkey: "Pornographic Content", "State criticism"
If you feel alone, let me relieve you: The only other country with
"state criticism" as one of its most frequent ban requests is
Thailand, where the oppressing regime took more than 30,000 lives of
human rights activists since 1947.
I can hear some of you say, "AKP government can't accept criticism,
this is why we are here", but it's not the only thing unfortunately.
The real point is about how we left the authority keep an eye on us
for so long. We couldn't criticize the military a couple of years ago.
Even now, there is an "Ataturk taboo" protected by grotesque laws. The
real issue is about the authority per se that becomes more oppressive
with time. AKP is temporary in that sense.
When government officials accuse the jailed journalists for being
guilty, we say, "they are terrorists anyways". I recommend all of you
to rethink about why we need journalists who interrogate government
policies and become the voices of the unheard.
Check out the map again. The big circle belongs to a country that
claims to be a "super force" and a genuine democracy in its region. It
is indeed an unsatisfied child obsessed with porn and who sends
letters to Internet providers to ban all content questioning his
childish authority. (AME/HK)
http://bianet.org/english/media/142665-google-report-reveals-turkish-governments-biggest-fears
Dec 7 2012
Google Report Reveals Turkish Government's Biggest Fears
Turkey is topping the list in the number content ban requests among
OECD countries, with most complaint made on state criticism and porn.
A. Murat Eren
Every six months Google releases reports concerning content ban
requests from national governments. Yesterday I came across the latest
report for 2012.
Turkish web users would not be surprised to see that Turkey made the
most ban requests in the world, I guess. Though, it is still tragic to
see Turkey only topping the list among OECD countries when it comes to
"content ban requests" and not when it comes to criteria such as
education, health, employment, etc. But hold on. There is more.
Google divided all ban requests into categories like "slander", "hate
crime", "violence", "national security" and "state criticism". I think
you can see where I am heading. I checked why countries made their ban
requests. And obviously, Turkey topped the list for "state criticism"!
The worse is that when we look at other countries, "state criticism"
requests are hardly the top priority. The complaint hardly finds its
itself in country lists such as UK (#7), France (#10), Germany (#9),
Spain (#7), US (#7) and India (#6).
This made me curious about what ban requests were made by other
countries. It's not appropriate to make any of ban requests anyway but
it is an interesting way to see what preoccupies governments all over
the world.
Here are the results:
* US: "Slander", "Privacy and Security"
* Argentina: "Slander", "Privacy and Security"
* Canada: "Slander", "Privacy and Security"
* Germany: "Slander", "Hate Speech"
* Italy: "Slander", "Copyrights"
* Japan: "Slander", "Privacy and Security"
* France: "Privacy and Security", "Slander",
* UK: "National Security", "Privacy and Security"
* Australia: "Privacy and Security", "Copyrights"
* Russia: "National Security", "Slander"
* Spain: "Privacy and Security", "Slander"
* Holland: "Slander", "Privacy and Security"
* Brazil: "Copyrights", "Slander"
* Hong Kong: "Copyrights"
* India: "Privacy and Security", "Slander"
* South Korea: "Privacy and Security", "Slander"
What about Turkey? Here's Turkey's most frequent ban requests:
* Turkey: "Pornographic Content", "State criticism"
If you feel alone, let me relieve you: The only other country with
"state criticism" as one of its most frequent ban requests is
Thailand, where the oppressing regime took more than 30,000 lives of
human rights activists since 1947.
I can hear some of you say, "AKP government can't accept criticism,
this is why we are here", but it's not the only thing unfortunately.
The real point is about how we left the authority keep an eye on us
for so long. We couldn't criticize the military a couple of years ago.
Even now, there is an "Ataturk taboo" protected by grotesque laws. The
real issue is about the authority per se that becomes more oppressive
with time. AKP is temporary in that sense.
When government officials accuse the jailed journalists for being
guilty, we say, "they are terrorists anyways". I recommend all of you
to rethink about why we need journalists who interrogate government
policies and become the voices of the unheard.
Check out the map again. The big circle belongs to a country that
claims to be a "super force" and a genuine democracy in its region. It
is indeed an unsatisfied child obsessed with porn and who sends
letters to Internet providers to ban all content questioning his
childish authority. (AME/HK)
http://bianet.org/english/media/142665-google-report-reveals-turkish-governments-biggest-fears