Turkey Is About To Restrict Online Freedom Even Further

Turkey intends to make it easier for the government to block social media and messaging apps after the 42-hour social media shutdown due to protests triggered by the arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu.

Originally reported by the Turkish news site Ekonomim and then shared by Bianet English, Turkey is planning to implement new regulations that would allow the restriction of these websites without the need for a court order.

Additionally, the amendment will obligate platforms with over 1 million Turkish users to have a local company within the country. Of course, these international businesses will need official authorization from BTK in order to operate and fully comply with Turkish laws.

Turkey has never been one to provide the most internet freedom to their citizens. Back in 2023, Freedom of the Net gave a score of 30 (in 100), continuing its steady decline over the past decade.

The government has become increasingly more authoritative throughout the years, enacting several laws that increase censorship and criminalize online speech.

One good example of that is the Disinformation Law, enacted in 2022, which has been used as a weapon to silence members of the political opposition as well as critical journalists.

VPN services have been known to be an efficient tool to bypass censorship and circumvent governmental blockage or internet throttle.

The security software encrypts all information end-to-end and changes the user’s digital location to trick websites into thinking they’re accessing it from a different location.

In other words, it’s able to unblock all types of content and websites while ensuring no one (in this case, the government) is able to know what you’re doing.

However, it’s essential to ensure you’re using a secure app. Many free VPN services (and even some paid ones) keep logs or have DNS leaks.

Although not very problematic when trying to access a Netflix library from a different country than yours, these issues can have more significant repercussions if caught by an authoritarian government.

We recommend checking out our best VPNs for Turkey guide to find our recommendations, as well as more on the topic of Turkish censorship.