14 DAY TRIAL // The Turkish Parliament has passed a law that will ultimately give authorities free hand to block Internet access to whatever sites they want without even having to get a court order and the European Union is not happy about what’s happening so close to its borders.
“The Turkish public deserves more information and more transparency, not more restrictions. The law needs to be revised in line with European standards,” said Peter Stano, spokesperson for the European Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Füle.
Turkey, a country that seeks to join the European Union, may not be a member just yet, but such moves to censor the Internet will not bode well for the nation’s integration chances.
While local lawmakers are saying that this decision isn’t about censorship and that such a view is completely wrong, everyone else disagrees. TUSIAD, Turkey’s leading industry and business association has already warned that the new bill will lead to wider censorship.
Human rights organizations have the same view of the bill that allows authorities to block users’ access to sites they don’t like. Since there are an estimated 40 million Internet users, the move impacts a lot of people.
Opposing political forces in Turkey believe that this is just another move of the government in an effort to cover the government’s and the president’s illegal activities, injustices and bribery allegations.
Yesterday, as the news spread across the globe about the new legislative changes in Turkey, the Internet revolted and hackers started plotting.
Hackers of the group RedHack, one of the Turkish government’s fiercest adversary in cyberspace, are already planning on protesting against the new law.
“This law is designed to suppress people more and silence them in order to stop them from criticizing AKP government. This is fascism. If people don’t react, their rights and freedoms will be stripped from them at all levels,” a RedHack representative told Softpedia yesterday.