Dutch MP’s Facebook profile removed for several hours after Erdogan message

DutchNews, May 10, 2016    

Photo: Facebook

The Facebook profile of Labour MP Keklik Yücel was removed for several hours on Tuesday afternoon shortly after she published a piece criticising ‘the long arm of [Turkish president] Erdogan’, the Volkskrant reported. 

In the past weeks, Yücel has taken up the cause of Dutch-Turkish columnist Ebru Umar, who has been under house arrest in Turkey for a fortnight for ‘insulting’ tweets about president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Yücel wrote on Facebook that many Dutch people of Turkish origin did not welcome this support. She spread her message on Twitter this morning, with the hashtag #FreeEbru, and a few hours later her entire profile disappeared. 

Facebook denied that the two issues were connected. ‘We want to emphasise that temporarily taking an account offline has nothing to do with the MP’s political comments,’ Facebook is quoted as saying by broadcaster NOS. 

The social media platform said there are several reasons why and account may be temporarily suspended but made no further comment about the reasoning in Yücel’s case.

 The PvdA issued a statement saying: ‘We find it unacceptable that a voice of the people who writes a candid story about her motives and ideas should have her profile simply taken offline. We have told Facebook this, asking it to reactivate her profile immediately.’

Related Articles:

Dutch journalist 'detained in Turkey' over Erdogan criticism

Freedom of speech cannot be bargained with, says Dutch foreign minister

Turkey YouTube ban violated freedom of expression: Europe court

Yahoo – AFP, 1 december 2015

A Turkish court had barred access to video-sharing site YouTube over 10 videos
 deemed insulting to modern Turkey's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
(AFP Photo/Samantha Sin)

Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday that Turkey had violated conventions on freedom of expression when it banned YouTube for more than two years.

An Ankara court had barred access to the video-sharing site from May 2008 to October 2010 over 10 videos deemed insulting to modern Turkey's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the Strasbourg-based rights tribunal said.

"Blocking without a legal basis users' access to YouTube infringed the right to receive and impart information," it said, ruling on a case brought by three Turkish law professors.

"The court also found that there was no provision in the law allowing the domestic courts to impose a blanket blocking order on access to the Internet, and in the present case to YouTube, on account of one of its contents."

The lengthy ban on YouTube -- and thousands of other websites -- had prompted widespread concern about freedom of expression under then prime minister and now President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who critics say has become increasingly authoritarian.

Before the ban, YouTube had been the fifth most popular site in Turkey.

Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been repeatedly criticised for using court orders to block critical websites, topping a Google table for content removal requests.

Last year the search engine also accused Turkey of intercepting its Internet domain, redirecting users to other sites.

The government blocked Twitter and YouTube in March 2014 after they were used to spread a torrent of audio recordings implicating Erdogan -- then premier -- and his inner circle in an alleged corruption scandal.

Turkey's parliament in March also approved legislation to tighten the government's control over the Internet by allowing it to block websites without prior judicial authorisation, sparking outrage both at home and abroad and a condemnation from the country's Constitutional Court.

Erdogan has also made no secret of his disdain for social networks, comparing them to a "murderer's knife" and once famously vowing to "eradicate" Twitter.

The European court said in its ruling Tuesday that "YouTube was a single platform which enabled information of specific interest, particularly on political and social matters, to be broadcast.

"It was therefore an important source of communication and the blocking order precluded access to specific information which it was not possible to access by other means."

Related Article:

Third Turkish journalist arrested amid fears of Ankara censorship: reports

Turkish telecoms authority lifts Twitter ban

Deutsche Welle, 3 April 2014

The two-week old Twitter ban in Turkey has been lifted and access to the website has been restored. The move follows a constitutional court ruling that the ban breached freedom of expression.

Turkey's TIB telecommunications authority removed the ban on Thursday just one day after the country's top court outlawed the ban, saying it violated freedom of expression and individual rights. The Turkish authorities had appealed an initial ruling at a lower court, sending it to the constitutional court.

The government sought to block the micro-blogging site on March 21 after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke critically of the site at an election campaign rally. Twitter had become a popular vehicle for sharing a stream of leaked wiretapped recordings of senior officials. One of the recordings appeared to implicate Erdogan and his son in a corruption scandal, but Erdogan said the recordings were fabricated.

Despite the shutdown, most of the roughly 12 million Turkish Twitter users had found ways to circumvent the attempted restrictions. One week after blocking Twitter, the government also blocked the video portal YouTube, which remains offline in the country.

Both restrictions came in the heat of a local election campaign; Turks voted on March 31.

Sunday's municipal elections cembented Erdogan's AKP (Justice and Development Party) grip on power. The party marginally increased its overall share of the vote and also retained control of the financial hub, Istanbul, and the capital, Ankara.

hc/msh (AFP, Reuters)

Spying accusations as Turkey blocks YouTube

Deutsche Welle, 28 March 2014

The Turkish government has blocked YouTube and is outraged over the release of an official recording regarding national and international security questions. The fate of the perpetrators and the government are at stake.

First Twitter, now YouTube. The Turkish telecoms authority TIB said the move to was an "administrative measure." But only a few hours before the measure came into force, a rather provocative recording was posted on the site. According to the official view, the audio clip is one of the most flagrant among the many that anonymous opponents of the government have been leaking online over the last few months. It exposes the Islamic-conservative government led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan just before the municipal elections scheduled to take place on March 30.

The conversation that was leaked this time is between Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and several heads of the intelligence service and the military. Participants of the conversation were apparently looking for a reason to go to war with Syria.

The recording could influence the
outcome of local elections

According to reports from the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet, the Turkish foreign ministry has confirmed the authenticity of the recording and has explained that the conversation took place in the foreign ministry. The ministry also emphasized, however, that the contents of the recording were distorted.

In astatement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this explanation was given:

"Monitoring such a meeting of a highly confidential nature which was held at a location such as the office of the foreign minister, where the most sensitive security issues of the state are discussed; and releasing these conversations to the public are a despicable attack, an act of espionage and a very serious crime against the national security of Turkey. This incident reveals the extent the threats of cyber and electronic attacks that Turkey encounters."

The statement called the perpetrators "enemies of our state" and said they would be identified and severely punished as soon as possible.

Erdogan, too, criticized the publication of the conversation during a campaign rally in eastern Turkey. "This is immoral, this is sleaze, this is shameful, this is dishonorable," he said of the leak.

'Desperate and depressing move'

The online community reacted vociferously to the YouTube restrictions. "What's missing in order to throw the country back into the Middle Ages? A block on Facebook? You might as well just turn off the electricity," a Facebook user ranted immediately after the measures blocking access to YouTube came into force. "Now Twitter and YouTube are blocked in Turkey. This is a total repression of freedom of speech," wrote another user.

EU Commissioner Neele Kroes, who is in charge of Europe's digital agenda, called the YouTube step "another desperate and depressing move in Turkey."

The Turkish radio and television supervisory board RTÜK banned several Turkish media outlets from spreading the video or communicating its contents. According to the newspaper Hürriyet, the Turkish federal prosecutor's office has already initiated investigations against those responsible for the video.

Measures taken too far

According to legal expert Bertan Tokuzlu, the recording gives the impression that the government wanted to make trouble internationally, in order to distract the public from internal problems. "If the government wanted to create a reason for war, that is absolutely not in keeping with international legal standards," says Tokuzlu.

The government blocked YouTube
just days after banning Twitter

But according to the legal expert, another aspect of the problem is at stake here. "This is a case of espionage. The alleged conversation took place in a secure location and it is on a very sensitive topic - the question of whether there should or should not be a war with Syria," he says. Tokuzlu added that the content of the conversation was clearly supposed to be released to the public in order to influence the results of this Sunday's (30.03.2014) local elections.

But blocking the whole YouTube site was never an appropriate solution, Tokuzlu maintains. "There is no reason to block entire sites. You could block individual accounts or videos; that would be legitimate in this sort of a case," he said. Tokuzlu also explained that blocking YouTube could not be compared with the move to block Twitter: "The Security Council in Turkey held an emergency meeting. Right after, YouTube was blocked. That shows how important this case is."

A serious crime

Tokuzlu also said that in Turkish criminal law, there is a chapter about state secrets and espionage. "Article 330 of the penal code could apply in the YouTube case. It concerns information that should be kept secret in the interest of the state as well as in the interest of national and international security. If that article is breached by means of political and military espionage, the perpetrator can expect lifelong detention. It's a very serious crime," the expert said.

The recording also mentions Turkish arms deliveries to Syrian opposition groups. "If that is the case and we have a war crime to deal with, then the public has a right to know this information, according to the European Court of Human Rights," Tokuzlu stressed, adding that the Turkish government's reaction to the publication of the conversation was very thin-skinned. "If the recording provides evidence of a war crime, then that might mean the government will be brought before a war crimes tribunal in the near future. That is a delicate subject."

Related Article:

Tech-savvy Turks, led by President Gul, flout attempted Twitter ban

We're heading for a decentralized Internet, but will we get there by 2015?

Deutsche Welle, 27 March 2014

It was all talk in Singapore. But with the US withdrawing from ICANN, the body that governs the Internet, in 2015, doubt is rife. The world's digital community may not get a new "world stewardship" model in time.

It was hardly a surprise. People had been calling for it for ages. But when the US Department of Commerce finally announced it was planning to relinquish control of a vital part of ICANN - and with it, the Internet - by October 2015, the chatter really began.

The announcement has "electrified" this week's ICANN 49 meeting in Singapore.

"We're in a situation where the announcement was only made last week so we're into an interesting period of reflection," says Nigel Hickson, ICANN's vice president for global stakeholder engagement in Europe.

Hickson, who was at the meeting in Singapore, along with 2,000 other delegates, including academics, lawyers, business people, members of civil society and governments, says the timing of the US announcement is important.

But he also refers to the plans as a "proposed transition," which clearly hints at the mammoth task ahead. This is not only about "names and numbers" - it's time to talk about the future of the global governance of the Internet.

"Someone or something has got to run the Domain Name System (DNS)," says Hickson. "And if you're going to have a single open Internet, rather than lots of fragmented internets, you need a technical infrastructure that is managed in a way that it remains open."

While everyone's been talking about golobal governance, ICANN's
been rolling out new TLDs like .africa

So what's at stake

Specifically, the US is giving up its control of the IANA function. This involves the allocation of unique names and numbers for use in Internet protocols - domain names and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. IANA falls under ICANN's remit.

A non-profit organization, ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. It takes care of Internet databases, it doles out generic Top Level Domain names [gTLDs], such as .com, .org, .berlin and .africa, and effectively governs the Internet under a contract with the US Department of Commerce.

If ICANN sounds like the sort of organization that is just too boring to know, think again.

It's said that, while it's never made use of this power, the US could, through its control of ICANN, make a website nameless and therefore make it disappear. It's the sort of thing you might hear about under dictatorships - that is, if the Web became a fragmented grouping of separate internets. But there are no known cases of the US ever having done this, and so it is seen as an arbiter and protector of the free Internet.

"There are some governments that would frankly like to control the Internet, so that you or I, or the people in that country, don't get to see everything they'd like to see," says Ryan Heath, spokesman for Neelie Kroes, vice president of the European Commission responsible for Europe's Digital Agenda.

Some countries, often led by China and Russia, have pushed for the Domain Name System to become part of the United Nations' remit. They argue this on the basis of ensuring a country's "sovereignty" on the Net.

But it's not the sort of model that the European Union wants to see.

"No, definitely not," says Heath. "What we need is a decentralized system, where all countries and all people who use the Internet, can have a stake in how that's run. We're not saying that governments have no role in how the Internet is run, but the Internet grew as a space for democracy and freedom, and those values will need to be respected in future models of Internet governance."

The challenge is stopping individual governments from controlling
people's access to the Net

Real-time planning

There's no doubt that it will be difficult to design a new model for Internet governance, which includes government interests (but at arm's length), and incorporates business, social concerns and civil liberties for all of the world's Internet users - but that's the aim.

It is time, as ICANN's CEO Fadi Chehadé puts it, to move from a single state stewardship to a world stewardship.

"When ICANN was established, the United States had nearly 90 percent of the world's Internet users. Now it has 13 percent of the world's Internet users. So you can't have one country having 95 percent of the control anymore," agrees Heath.

The question is whether it will happen in time for the transfer.

"[The US] has strictly ruled out any single government, or group of governments, or a multinational government-led organization being in charge," says Dr Jörg Schweiger, CEO of DENIC, which administers Germany's own TLD .de.

"So this is really the tough part," says Schweiger, who was also at the Singapore meeting, "and this is why we are at first talking 'meta' before we talk about a concrete model to be designed by 2015. But if it doesn't happen in time, there may well be another assignment of the existing contract to the existing organization."

ICANN's Nigel Hickson makes the same concession.

"I think there's a degree of confidence that we'll have some sort of model by 2015," Hickson says, "and of course 2015 is not a hard-and-fast deadline, the current IANA contract finishes in 2015, but it can be extended."

Heath shares Hickson's confidence in a positive outcome, but he rejects the idea that this may be, as some have hoped, Europe's opportunity to step into the US's big boots.

"We have a series of conferences between now and then. And if they go well, then we will meet the deadline," says Heath. "And it is possible to have a system where governments are one of many voices in Internet governance - that's the system we've got now. The difference between now and hopefully 2016, is that instead of it being one government having a voice, everybody can have a voice."

Following the ICANN 49 meeting in Singapore, which ends this Thursday (27.03.2014), the next conference is NETmundial in Brazil and an Internet governance forum in September.

But don't hold your breath for an early outcome.

Related Articles:

US to relinquish key oversight role for Internet
Internet governance too US-centric, says European commission

‘The internet is a gift from God’ - Pope Francis

The Internet  - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification ("The End of History")

" ... Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.... "

" ... I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy. For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history?... " Read More …. "The End of History"- Nov 20,2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

US on Turkey's Twitter ban: more tweets than before

Google – AFP, 24 March 2014

Protesters demonstrate against the ban on Twitter in Ankara on March 22, 

2014 (AFP/File, Adem Altan)

Washington — The United States on Monday noted there have been more Turkish tweets since the prime minister controversially banned the micro-blogging service than before.

Turkey's telecommunications authority blocked local access to the US social network Thursday under orders of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after opposition members used the social network to post telephone recordings implicating him in a major corruption scandal.

The move has attracted ire from the international community, with Washington on Friday denouncing the blow to "the right to free speech."

But State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf noted Monday that "there have been more tweets from Turkey since the government blocked (Twitter) than there were before."

"Which is an interesting, I think, signal to people who try to clamp down on freedom of expression: that it doesn't work, and isn't the right thing to do," she said.

"What the world saw was the number of people inside Turkey tweeting about what they thought about it being blocked there," Harf continued, as she also reiterated her government's condemnation of the ban.

The United States "said very clearly to the Turkish government that this is not acceptable and that we do not think they should be able to block their citizens' access to these kind of social media platforms," Harf said.

The spokeswoman noted that the US government was also "in contact with Twitter," but did not say if the United States would go to court to force Turkey to restore access to the service.

Washington and Ankara have a long-standing military alliance, including through NATO, and the two countries work together closely to support the opposition and the rebellion in Syria.

But relations have chilled in recent months as the United States has increasingly criticized the government's record on respecting civil liberties and human rights under Erdogan.

Tech-savvy Turks, led by President Gul, flout attempted Twitter ban

Deutsche Welle, 21 March 2014

Turkish President Abdullah Gul has criticized government attempts to block microblogging site Twitter. He did so in a series of messages on Twitter. Gul was by no means the only Turk to wriggle out of the restrictions.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attempt to block the Twitter social media platform proved neither popular nor particularly effective on Friday. The site went black in Turkey late on Thursday, after Erdogan said in a speech that he intended to "wipe out" the service.

Twitter, a brief, 140-character format well suited to sharing links to information elsewhere online, had become a popular vehicle to spread audio recordings that appeared to incriminate Erdogan and other top government officials in corruption cases.

"A complete ban on social media platforms cannot be approved," President Abdullah Gul, a former ally of Erdogan who has become increasingly critical in recent months, wrote in one of five Twitter messages published during the blackout.

"I hope this implementation won't last long," he said in another Tweet. Gul has almost 4.5 million "followers" on the social media platform.

Above-average Turkish traffic

Twitter's own @support handle issued a message telling Turks how they could still write messages on the social media site using SMS "text" messages from their mobile phones. Meanwhile, cheat sheets in the Turkish language, explaining how to circumvent such bans more completely using Internet proxies and other workarounds, were distributed by members of the public in response.

According to the social media analysts at Brandwatch, more Twitter messages emanated from Turkey on Friday - in spite of the ban - than was the case on Wednesday before Erdogan's announcement.

Twitter boasts some 10 million Turkish users, with Turkish-language hash-tags regularly making the list of global trending topics. "#TwitterIsBlockedInTurkey" and "#TurkeyBlockedTwitter" both made the list on Friday.

Turkish voters will take part in local elections on March 30; the campaign has been impacted by the corruption allegations against the government.

The European Union commented critically on the attempted ban, after Erdogan had said he was "not interested" in the international reaction to his decision.

"The ban … raises grave concerns and casts doubt on Turkey's stated commitment to European values and standards," EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle said in a statement. Turkey has long sought EU membership but is struggling with several outstanding hurdles to this target - not least the division of EU-member Cyprus.

msh/rc (AFP, Reuters)

Related Article:

Turkish court orders lifting of Twitter ban