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Archive for the ‘Google’ Category

OSCE calls on Turkey to stop blocking YouTube | Reuters

VIENNA, Tue Jun 22, 2010 11:14am EDT

VIENNA (Reuters) – Europe’s main human rights and security body told Turkey on Tuesday to stop blocking Google’s video-sharing website YouTube and thousands of other sites banned under its internet law.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the law, introduced in 2007, has been expanded to bar over 5,000 sites in the past two years and is severely damaging freedom of expression and information rights.

‘I ask the Turkish authorities to revoke the blocking provisions that prevent citizens from being part of today’s global information society,’ the OSCE’s media freedoms chief Dunja Mijatovic said in a statement.

Turkey initially passed the law to restrict access to pornography and other content it deemed harmful to children. The Vienna-based, 56-nation OSCE says the law has now been used to go far beyond that.

‘Instead of allowing free access to the internet, new ways have emerged that can further restrict the free flow of information in the country,’ Mijatovic said.

Turkey, an OSCE member, first started blocking YouTube in 2008 after it ruled that some videos posted on the site were insulting to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern republic.

The Turkish government has also cited offences including child pornography and encouragement of suicide for blocking websites.

The OSCE said Mijatovic had written to Turkey’s foreign minister to complain about new restrictions introduced earlier this month that have hampered access to other Google services such as its instant translation site and web traffic tracker.

Mijatovic said the alleged reason behind the block was an unsettled tax row between Turkish authorities and Google but that this matter was not covered in the original law.

Earlier this month, Turkish President Abdullah Gul used his Twitter page to condemn the ban on YouTube and some Google services. He said he had asked ‘responsible institutions for a solution. I asked for a change in regulations on merit.’

The president’s role in Turkey is largely ceremonial; decisions are taken by the prime minister and cabinet.

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

OSCE Press release – OSCE media freedom representative asks Turkey to withdraw recent Internet blocking provisions, calls for urgent reform of law

OSCE media freedom representative asks Turkey to withdraw recent Internet blocking provisions, calls for urgent reform of law

VIENNA, 22 June 2010 – Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, today urged the Turkish authorities to restore access to YouTube and other services offered by Google, and bring the much-criticized Law No. 5651 – known as the Internet Law – in line with international standards on free expression.

‘I ask the Turkish authorities to revoke the blocking provisions that prevent citizens from being part of today’s global information society. I also ask them to carry out a very much needed reform of Law No. 5651,’ said Mijatovic.

In a letter sent to Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Mijatovic expressed concern about new blocking provisions imposed earlier this month.

‘I am alarmed by the decision of the Turkish Telecommunications Communication Presidency to block access to dozens of Internet Protocol addresses related to YouTube and Google services. As a result, since early June several services related to Google – including popular services like Analytics or Translate – have been either unattainable, or access to them has become very slow,’ she wrote.

The alleged reason behind the block is an unsettled tax dispute between the Ministry of Transport and Communication and Google, the owner of YouTube. ‘But even the widely criticized Internet Law does not include tax disputes among the reasons that it cites as cause for blocking websites,’ the Representative said.

‘My Office has been promoting the urgent reform of Law No. 5651, because it considerably limits freedom of expression and severely restricts citizens’ right to access information,’ she added.

‘More than 5,000 websites have been blocked in Turkey during the last two years. The recent blocking is a worrisome indicator that instead of allowing free access to the Internet, new ways have emerged that can further restrict the free flow of information in the country.’

The legal review of Law No. 5651, commissioned by the OSCE in January 2010, can be downloaded here: http://www.osce.org/item/42294.html

Since early morning of 18.06.2010 (01:00hrs approximately) the websites of the Ministry of Transportation (http://www.ubak.gov.tr/), Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) (http://www.tk.gov.tr/), and the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TIB) (http://www.tib.gov.tr/) has been unaccessible. The three state bodies are responsible for Internet censorship and has been aggressively trying to make it impossible to access YouTube and Google related services from Turkey since 03 June 2010.

On the 3rd of June 2010, the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TIB) asked the Turkish Internet Service Providers to block access to certain IP addresses associated with YouTube. The ISPs then started warning their users that as a result of TIB’s request to block access to certain IP addresses certain Google services may also be affected. In fact considerable number of Google related services (including popular services such as Analytics, Translate, Docs, Books, Map, and Earth) have been affected from Turkey since the 4th of June.

Yesterday, on 17.06.2010 the plot thickened further as an Ankara Public Prosecutor asked Ankara’s 1st Criminal Court of Peace to block access to 44 IP addresses related to YouTube and Google related services. The Court complied and granted the supplementary decision to its infamous May 2008 YouTube blocking order. Users started to report that services such as Picasa and Google Maps become impossible to use. Several other Google services are reportedly malfunctioning.

It looks like somebody decided to retaliate and either the state authorities’ websites are hacked, or they have been subjected to a serious denial of service (DoS) attack. As there are no ‘hacked signatures” on the websites and they remain inaccessible for nearly 10hrs this is more likely to be a DoS attack.

It is now confirmed that it was a DoS attack co-ordinated by a group of hackers to protest against Internet censorship in Turkey. A press release sent to the press stated that this was a systematic attack that lasted 10hrs. They said the attack would stop at 1100 local hour, and in fact the websites were back online by 1105. The attackers stated that they stopped the attack as a goodwill gesture, but the reason behind the attack was to protest against the unlawful blocking of access to YouTube and related IP services.

The Ministry of Transportation confirmed the attack later in the afternoon but stated that it only lasted 30 minutes, and that they themselves managed to stop the attack. Nobody believed the government sources, and I personally followed the story from the beginning and confirm that these websites were unaccessible since early morning until 1105 today.

Written by Dr. Yaman Akdeniz, Associate Professor, Human Rights Law Research Center, Faculty of Law, Istanbul Bilgi University, and Director of Cyber-Rights.Org. (lawya@cyber-rights.org)

The Attackers Press Release in Turkish

Kamuoyuna Duyuru

Aşağıda sıralanmış olan sistemlere erişimi TSI 01:00 ila 11:00 arası engellenmiştir. Gerekçeleri aşağıda anlatılmak ile birlikte sadece bu saatler arasında erişime engellenmesinin sebebi iyi niyetimizin bir göstergesidir, amacımız kurumların çalışmasını engellemek değil aşağıda anlatmış olduğumuz konulara kamuoyunun ve kamunun dikkatini çekmektir.

Telekomünikasyon İletişim Başkanlığı ( http://www.tib.gov.tr )
Telekomünikasyon Kurumu – Bilgi Teknolojileri ve İletişim Kurumu (http://www.tk.gov.tr – http://www.btk.gov.tr )
Ulaştırma Bakanlığı (http://www.ubak.gov.tr )

sitelerine erişim, youtube’a yonelik olarak yürüttükleri 5651 sayılı yasa kapsamındaki hukuksuz çalışmalar sebebi ile engellenmiştir.

Tübitak (http://www.tubitak.gov.tr)

sitesine erişim ise kurum içerisinde yer alan, kamu güvenliğini hedef alan BOME(Bilgisayar Olaylarına Müdahale Ekibi) yapısının fonksiyonsuzluğunu ve vizyonsuzluğunu gözler önüne sermek için engellenmiştir. Kamu Bilgi Güvenliği daha kendi güvenliğini sağlayamayan bu tarz kurumların tekeline bırakılmamalıdır.

Bilgilerinize arz ederiz.

Free speech: Turkey versus Google | Index on Censorship

16 Jun 2010

Turkey’s Internet censorship hit the news this week when the country’s own president raised his objections to the policy on Twitter. Yaman Akdeniz explains the state’s recent struggles with Google and YouTube

Access to YouTube has been blocked from Turkey since a May 2008 order by an Ankara court. The order was issued because of 10 video clips involving defamatory statements and images about the founder of the Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. These clips were deemed illegal under Law No. 5816 — ‘Crimes Against Atatürk’. Access to such content can be blocked under Law No 5651 — ‘Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Suppression of Crimes Committed by Means of Such Publication’ — which came into force in November 2007.

Since then access to a considerable number of websites has been blocked in Turkey. In January 2010, a report by the OSCE on Turkey and Internet Censorship documented that 3,700 Internet websites are blocked. Miklos Haraszti, the then OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, asked the Turkish authorities to bring Turkey’s Internet law in line with OSCE commitments and other international standards on freedom of expression. Haraszti argued that the law, by blocking access to entire websites, paralysed access to numerous modern file sharing and social networks. The current number of blocked websites is estimated to be around 5,000.

In June 2010, the situation went from bad to worse as the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TIB) asked Turkish Internet Service Providers to block access to certain IP addresses associated with YouTube. The ISPs then started warning their users that as a result of TIB’s request to block access to certain IP addresses certain Google services may also be affected. In fact considerable number of Google related services (including popular services such as Analytics, Translate, Docs, Books, Map, and Earth) have been affected from Turkey since the 4 June.
Google services are not completely blocked, but users are reporting that they either cannot access them at all or that access is painfully slow. My own tests from two different ISPs confirmed this. Under heavy criticism, TIB claimed through a press release issued on 4 June that it was updating IP addresses associated with the YouTube blocking order, and it was Google’s fault that they were using the same IP addresses for YouTube as well as for the Google-related services.

As there is no specific court issued blocking order or an administrative blocking order associated with Google related services we [the author and Dr Kerem Altıparmak, Assistant Professor at the Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences] registered an appeal with TIB. We argued that the administrative body’s action was unlawful, and disproportionate as access to YouTube was already blocked from Turkey. Therefore, a more restrictive measure which also affects other Google services is unnecessary. At the same time, an administrative court action was also launched by an Internet related civil society group, claiming TIB’s action to be unlawful.

Although initially the IP blocking action looked like a side effect of the Turkish authorities desire to make it even more difficult to access YouTube, the real reason behind the blocking action turned to be a tax issue. The Transportation Minister who is also responsible for the state’s Internet policy claimed that Google owns the government £GBP 13m in tax levy, and called on Google to register as a taxpayer in the country to ‘help accelerate’ the lifting of a ban on YouTube and Google services. However, tax evasion is not included as one of the catalogue crimes under Law No. 5651 as a legal justification for blocking access to websites from Turkey!

Whether we like it or not, and without forgetting about privacy and data protection related problems associated with Google across Europe with its Street View service and other privacy issues, Google remains a vital source of information. Its services have a major public benefit, not only for Internet users but also for thousands of companies who use its services for business purposes. Therefore, this latest disproportionate state action can only be described as censorship, and remains unacceptable in a democratic society.

Dr Yaman Akdeniz is Associate Professor, Human Rights Law Research Center, Faculty of Law, Istanbul Bilgi University, and Director of Cyber-Rights.Org

Turks infuriated over ban on Google sites (SETimes.com)

Turkish activists have initiated a legal challenge against the government’s controversial move to block Google services.

By A Simsek for Southeast European Times — 15/06/10

Professor Yaman Akdeniz. [Photo by A.Simsek/SETimes]

A move by the Turkish government to block Google services has left millions of internet users frustrated and put the country’s internet legislation under scrutiny.

As part of an ongoing ban on YouTube, the government earlier this month imposed a blanket restriction on the IP addresses the video-sharing site uses. YouTube, however, is owned by Google Inc., and the search giant uses various dynamic IPs.

As a result, a number of different services — including Google Analytics, Docs, Translate and Books — are now blocked in Turkey.

Internet users and activists there are infuriated. An ongoing campaign against internet censorship drew thousands of supporters, including representatives of NGOs and internet sites.

Two cyber rights activists, Associate Professor Yaman Akdeniz, a member of the Bilgi University Faculty of Law, and Assistant Professor Kerem Altiparmak, a member of the Ankara University Faculty of Political Science, have asked the European Court of Human Rights to revoke the controversial ban.

‘This blanket IP ban and restrictions on accessing Google services is a violation of basic freedoms — freedom of communication and the right to information — which are also guaranteed in the Turkish Constitution,’ Akdeniz told SETimes. The YouTube ban dates back to 2008, when an Ankara court ruled that various videos posted on the site are an insult to Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

At that time, only three IP numbers were associated with YouTube and only these were blocked. Although the ten insulting videos are inaccessible from Turkey, a total blockage of YouTube continues.

‘The difficulties in accessing some Google services in Turkey appears to be linked to the ongoing ban on You Tube. We are working to get our services back up as soon as possible,’ Google spokesman Jordan Newman told SETimes.

Under heavy criticism, the government blamed Google Inc. for changing its configurations, mixing YouTube’s IP numbers with Google sites.

The government is also demanding that the internet giant register in Turkey, operate under Turkish law and pay taxes within the country. The finance ministry seeks taxes to the tune of 15.1m euros.

‘Google should obey the rules of Turkey,’ Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim said last week. ‘We are making big steps towards transforming Turkey into an information society. We have no intention at all of blocking the internet,’ he said.

With around 18 million internet users, Google sites ranked as the largest property in Turkey, with more than 16 million visitors in April 2009 — 90% of the country’s online population.

‘Google is a vital source of information,’ Akdeniz said. ‘Google services have a major public benefit. The current issue cannot be reduced to a problem with a company,’ he said.

‘The current internet restrictions in Turkey absolutely violate basic freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution and international conventions. The current practice of restrictions is unacceptable, both legally and politically,’ Altiparmak told SETimes.

This content was commissioned for SETimes.com

Bianet: Media Freedom Activists Bring Lawsuit against Google Ban

Akdeniz from Bilgi University and Altıparmak from Ankara University will appeal to the ban of certain Google services imposed by the Telecommunication Communication Presidency. bianet.org publication coordinator Kürkçü criticized the restrictions which directly harm the work of bianet. The Turkish Journalists Association and Reporters without Borders condemned the ban.

Erol Önderoğlu – Tolga Korkut
Istanbul – Ankara – BİA News Center
08 June 2010, Tuesday

Assoc. Prof. Yaman Akdeniz, member of the Bilgi University Faculty of Law, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kerem Altıparmak, member of the Ankara University Faculty of Political Science, prepare an appeal to the Telecommunication Communication Presidency (TİB) because of the restricted access to Google services implemented on 4 June.

The Ankara 1st Magistrate Criminal Court had banned access to the global social networking site YouTube.com, the video service owned by Google, with a decision from 4 May 2008. In order to increase the effect of this decision, certain services of Google which are activated under the same IP numbers are blocked now as well.

Yaman Akdeniz told bianet that he was not sure whether this problem could be overcome. The access to Google Analytics has become very troublesome, Akdeniz said to name just one example. Google Analytics offers web analytics for enterprises to gain insights into website traffic and marketing effectiveness.

Kürkçü: Measurements, correspondence, data processing hindered

bianet.org publication coordinator Ertuğrul Kürkçü confirmed the problem with Google Analytics. He said that the interruption of both YouTube and Google services has many negative effects:

‘Google analytics is an absolutely crucial service for us since it is the basis of our analysis of the viewing figures of our publications and of information related to our sources. For the past week we were not able to obtain any significant data which allows us to measure the reactions of our readers. This makes us blind’.

‘We are not able to make use of Google Docs for our internal correspondence and documentation. Even if we manage to use it, we are facing massive delays. This creates problems in processing data’.
‘Ready to take joint legal action’

‘More important, we have to cope with delays and lack of communication with our readers and other sources because our correspondence is done via Google. This is a serious interruption in our production process. We had difficulties before in particular regarding the sharing of videos due to restrictions imposed on YouTube. We sustained serious damage regarding both the contents and the operational procedures because of this ban. We protest TİB. We are open for a joint move together with other parties who have been harmed to do what we can with legal measures’.

Akdeniz emphasized that the actual problem is based on the latest implementations of TİB to make access to Google services more difficult and even fully block access in certain situations.

‘This application is exaggerated. YouTube has been blocked anyways. New measures to make access even more difficult are harming the other Google services. This is nothing else but censorship. This is an extreme and contradictory application which is unacceptable in a democratic society.
Turkish Journalists Association voices criticism

The Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) evaluated the obstructed access to several Google services as ‘a restriction of freedom of communication’. TGC called the implementation which is based on a court decision related to Google an ‘arbitrary’ application. They called TİB to take back the access ban.

RSF condemns restrictions on Google

Reporters without Borders (RSF) condemned the increasing censorship on Google in Turkey.

‘It is time the Turkish authorities demonstrated their commitment to free expression by putting an end to the censorship that affects thousands of websites in Turkey and by overhauling Law 5651 on the Internet, which allows this sort of mass blocking of sites,’ Reporters Without Borders said.

‘The censorship of YouTube in particular seems to be an archaic form of control, one that prevents Turks from accessing Web 2.0’s potential,’ the press freedom organisation added. ‘This trend has been accentuated by the current problems in accessing other services provided by Google, which are widely used by Turkish Internet users.’

Turkey under ’surveillance’

In March this year, RSF added Turkey to the list of countries ‘under surveillance’ on the grounds of law no. 5651 on Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Suppression of Crimes Committed by means of Such Publication which creates the basis for trials related to internet sites. (EÖ/TK/VK)

Reporters Sans Frontières – Blockage of YouTube spreads to Google services

Published on 7 June 2010

Reporters Without Borders condemns the growing repercussions of Turkey’s censorship of YouTube, the video-sharing service owned by Google. Turkish Internet users have been having problems accessing Google services such as Google Analytics, Google AdWords and Google Docs since 4 June, when the High Council for Telecommunications (TIB) reported that it had asked Internet Service Providers to block additional YouTube-linked IP addresses.

The Turkish authorities have been blocking access to YouTube in Turkey since May 2008 because of videos that are said to insult the Turkish republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

‘It is time the Turkish authorities demonstrated their commitment to free expression by putting an end to the censorship that affects thousands of websites in Turkey and by overhauling Law 5651 on the Internet, which allows this sort of mass blocking of sites,’ Reporters Without Borders said.

‘The censorship of YouTube in particular seems to be an archaic form of control, one that prevents Turks from accessing Web 2.0’s potential,’ the press freedom organisation added. ‘This trend has been accentuated by the current problems in accessing other services provided by Google, which are widely used by Turkish Internet users.’

In a statement issued on 4 June, Google said: ‘We have received reports that some Google applications cannot be accessed in Turkey. The difficulty (…) appears to be linked to the ongoing ban on YouTube. We are working to get our services back up as soon as possible.’

Several Turkish newspapers have meanwhile quoted President Abdullah Gül as saying he does not support Internet censorship in Turkey. ‘I do not want Turkey to be included among the countries that ban YouTube and prevent access to Google,’ he said. ‘If there are problems due to our legislation, there should be ways to overcome that.’

The Association of Turkish Journalists also condemned the measures restricting access to certain Google services, which were not based on ‘any judicial decision,’ it said.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) estimates that around 3,700 websites are currently ‘blocked for arbitrary and political reasons’ in Turkey. They include many foreign websites, sites targeted at Turkey’s Kurdish minority, and gay community sites.

Under article 8 of Law 5651, all the authorities need in order to block a website is ‘sufficient evidence’ of content that falls into any of the following eight categories: inciting suicide, sexual exploitation and abuse of children, facilitation of drug use, provision of substances dangerous for the health, obscenity, online betting and ‘crimes against Atatürk.’ In practice, it is the last one that is the most problematic.

In its report on ‘Enemies of the Internet,’ issued last March, Reporters Without Borders added Turkey to the list of ‘countries under surveillance.’

Statement by Dr. Yaman Akdeniz, Associate Professor, Human Rights Law Research Center, Faculty of Law, Istanbul Bilgi University, and Director of Cyber-Rights.Org. (lawya@cyber-rights.org)

The situation in terms of Internet censorship has moved from BAD to WORSE in Turkey as the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TIB) asked the Turkish Internet Service Providers to block access to certain IP addresses associated with YouTube.

As it is well know access to YouTube has been blocked from Turkey since May 2008, and DNS-poisoning method has been used until very recently. However, as of yesterday TIB asked the Turkish ISPs to block access to certain IP addresses associated with YouTube. The ISPs then started warning their users that as a result of the most recent IP blocking certain Google services may also be affected.

Since last night a considerable number of Google related services have been affected from Turkey. These are:

http://code.google.com

http://pages.google.com

http://video.google.com

http://translate.google.com.tr

http://docs.google.com

http://sites.google.com

http://books.google.com

http://chrome.google.com

http://sketchup.google.com

http://froogle.google.com

http://labs.google.com

http://mars.google.com

http://moon.google.com

http://notebook.google.com

http://toolbar.google.com

http://browsersync.google.com

http://catalog.google.com

http://codesearch.google.com

http://dir.google.com

http://earth.google.com

http://groups.google.com.tr

http://shopping.google.com

http://sky.google.com

http://support.google.com

http://tools.google.com

http://wap.google.com

http://answers.google.com

http://google-analystics.com

The above services are not completely blocked but users are reporting that they either cannot access them or access is really slow. My own tests from two different ISPs confirmed the situation.

This is an unacceptable side effect to the Turkish authorities desire to block access to YouTube. The latest disproportionate action can only be described as censorship and remains unacceptable in a democratic society. The blocking of websites that carry legal content such as YouTube and all the above mentioned Google related services could be incompatible with Article 10, and could be regarded as a serious infringement on freedom of speech, and too far-reaching than reasonably necessary in a democratic society.

News Story to be updated soon.

Dr. Yaman Akdeniz.

Wider European Scrutiny of Google on Privacy: “Six countries have joined Germany in a move that may force the company to disclose what data its employees collected from unsecured wireless networks.

(Via NYT > Technology.)