Protests in Turkey against Internet controls

16.05.2011
Thousands of Turks protested Sunday both online and on the streets against new Internet controls proposed by the Turkish government.

The controls will require users to choose one of four filters before accessing the Internet, according to media reports. The family, children, domestic or standard filters will result in different levels of filtering. The list of websites that will be blocked by each filter is classified, said Reporters Without Borders.

The new rules from Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority, which is commonly known as BTK, come into effect from August 22.

"This measure is a complete violation of both the European Convention on Human Right and Turkey’s own constitution," Reporters Without Borders said earlier this month. "Everyone should be guaranteed unrestricted access to the Internet."

The Turkish government earlier abandoned a plan in April to filter content based on 138 keywords, Reporters Without Borders said.

On some Internet sites, users have which they said are of a march on Sunday at Taksim Square in Istanbul.