Policy Observatory

Turkey has passed a new law that allows the government to close a website. The Internet Service Providers have to comply in just 4 hours. The judiciary is authorized to intervene only ex post.

The Turkey Blocks monitoring network has verified restrictions affecting the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia in Turkey. A block affecting all language editions of the website detected at 8:00AM local time Saturday 29 April, 2017. The loss of availability is consistent with internet filters used to censor content in the country.

Human rights judges have backed a Turkish MP, who complained that the six week interception and surveillance of all electronic communication in the country, amounted to a breach of human rights. The European Court of Human Rights’ 18 July decision in the case Mustafa Sezgin Tanrıkulu v. Turkey (no. 27473/06) declared a Violation of Article 8 and a Violation of Article 13.

The decision is available here.