What is most disappointing about the Turkish official position that hosts IGF is that in internet governance matters not a single inch change occurred. They do not have the manpower to make their propaganda or change discourses to try to persuade critics.
One of the major panels Turkey hosted was unsurprisingly on “child safety”. One might admire how Turks are so sensitive about the child safety. But figures shows opposite. Many child rights violations- including child brides issue- happen offline and Turkish government gives in to customs instead of challenging and in some cases some officials actually encourage violations. But when it comes to internet, Turkish officials become number one child safety advocates. In the panel, there was not much but the same gross arguments. An official explicitly said social media is not good for children so they discourage. This stunned many foreigners since they took the panel seriously they sincerely thought this panel was for child safety issues. We in fact prepared a series of questions that could actually clear Turkish arguments. However, the foreign moderator rudely intervened and did not let us questions. I guess Turkish officials actually found some to cooperate with. One question was that when child safety was used as a pretext- frequently indeed- to block sites, could it be possible to explain what kind of violation intended.
Net neutrality and some other criticial issues were not on the agenda of BTK (Turkish Department in Charge of Internet Communications) officials. What BTK did was to send its officials to panels in which Turkish citizens would present. So BTK people were in a kind of intelligence gathering against their own citizens.
Without shame, in Google Tent event, another BTK official stated that all blocks were due to court decisions and government has nothing to do. We did not need to ask why then in corruption case, Erdoğan’s son did not go to court but instead thousands of policemen and judicial positions were redeployed in order to stop judicial process.
Finally, Minister in charge made fool of himself in the opening ceremony by throwing a bunch numbers to declare how Turkey was developed in Internet communications. Like his master, he was glad to offer how many broadband subscribers Turkey had or he was glad to talk of a Fatih project nobody knows what that is about…
Critics of IGF should actually be happy that Turkey could not use the meeting for her propaganda but made herself being viciously criticized by many participants….. Not to mention the fact that glorious Turkish State could not offer free food to participants which happened in previous IGF meetings. Such stinginess!
This Story piece includes many links about IGF and IUF: https://storify.com/dadaruh/igf-and-iuf
Internet issues discussed in Internet Ungovernance Forum
Daily Sabah
ISTANBUL — The ‘Internet Ungovernance Forum’ seeking to provide a sphere for journalists and internet experts for a discussion over internet issues across the world as well as Turkey was held between Sept. 3 and Sept 4 at the main Campus of İstanbul .
ec.europa.eu – Published by Neelie KROES on Friday, 05/09/2014 This week has seen a very interesting set of events around the future of the internet in Istanbul. At Bilgi Univerisity I gave a speech, “Freedom is No Laughing Matter”, on the state of
RIGHTS – Lack of Internet freedom in Turkey requires deeper systemic changes, rights groups say
hurriyetdailynews.com – Turkey attracted international criticism when it temporarily banned access to Twitter and YouTube earlier this year. Turkey must engage in reforms beyond legislation to quell the lack of Internet freedoms, several rights group said in a joint press…
Ninth IGF Concludes in Istanbul
The Number Resource Organization
The ninth annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF) concluded on Friday, 5 September, in Istanbul, Turkey. The five days of wide-ranging Internet
W3C hosting a “Web We Want Magna Carta” drafting session at Internet Governance Forum
The Web I want doesn’t have DRM in its standards, because the Web I want doesn’t believe it’s legitimate to design computers so that strangers over a network can give your computer orders that you aren’t allowed to know about or override. Read the rest
Internet governance and “ungovernance” meet ups in Istanbul http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Internet-governance-and-ungovernance-meet-ups-in-Istanbul/articleshow/41565623.cms
Turkey: Internet Freedom, Rights in Sharp Decline
http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/09/02/turkey-internet-freedom-rights-sharp-decline
The “Internet Governance” Farce and its “Multi-stakeholder” Illusion – Jérémie Zimmermann
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/the-internet-governance-farce-and-its-multi-stakeholder-illusion
UN holds Internet Governance Forum in a country known for digital censorship
Free Speech Radio News
Activists at the Internet Un-Governance Forum at Istanbul’s Bilgi University took the UN organizers to task for holding the forum in a country with a poor record on digital censorship. But one of the Internet Governance Forum’s main organizers Janis …
Internet Governance Is Turkey a bad Internet Governance Forum host if you can …
Turkey Hosts Internet Forum Despite Its Dismal Web Freedom
Access at the Internet Governance Forum
Connecting Istanbul and London to Crowdsource the Web We Want Festival
Global Voices Online by Renata Avila
Web We Want/Southbank Centre Festival. Image used with permission.
Twenty-five years ago, Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web and gave it to the world. To mark this anniversary, we are building a major new three-part festival at Southbank Centre, where we will ask all kinds of people to share their ideas of how the Web should develop over the next 25 years.
Internet Governance Turkey faces criticism as host of the Internet Governance …
Deutsche Welle
“The IGF should never have taken place here,” Yaman Akdeniz, a leading Turkish cyber rights activist and professor of cyber law at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, declared angrily. “Turkey’s approach to Internet policy, Internet governance is problematic …
UN holds Internet Governance Forum in a country known for digital censorship
Turkey Hosts Internet Forum Despite Its Dismal Web Freedom
Access at the Internet Governance Forum
DPM Vujica Lazović takes part in Annual Internet Governance Forum in Istanbul
www.gov.me
Istanbul, Turkey (3 September 2014) – Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Information Society and Telecommunications Vujica Lazović attended
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