Blogs

Turkey: Social media and our rights

By EDRi · July 31, 2013

The EDRi member from Turkey Alternative Informatics Association together
with other 11 NGOs from Turkey issued the following public announcement
with the title “Reclaiming our rights on social media following the Gezi
Park protests”:

UN and some international organizations have declared Internet as the
main tool of freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Internet
and social media are indispensable for the individual to progress, for
the individual to take part in society and for a sustainable democracy.
Around the whole world masses demand access to information, transparency
and participative democracy.

Freedom of expression, freedom to protest and privacy are fundamental
human rights. Freedom of expression also consists of dissent. However,
defamation, hate speech and call for violence are not included in
freedom of expression.

Social media have changed communication and organization styles
considerably. Social media is not a “menace” to society, but in the
contrary, they are group of tools that are highly valuable for the society.

The use of social media is not an illegal act, but it is part of
communication freedom, which is a constitutional right. Eavesdropping
into others’ social media communication however is illegal. According to
22nd article of the constitution of the Turkish Republic “everyone has
the right to communicate freely. One of the fundamentals of
communication is privacy”

Gezi Park protests show us that social media supports the right seeking
attempts of the citizens perfectly. This support is performed in order
to resolve the information asymmetry between the citizens and the
government. Since almost all the Turkish press was ignoring the truth or
openly fabricating news, the social media allows the population to learn
the truth.

Social Media sharing activities that do not contain defamation, hate
speech or call to violence are not a crime. These activities include
sharing protest locations and times or sharing medical information such
as doctor or pharmacy locations for those who have been exposed to
violence.

Citizens may use pseudo names or nicknames while sharing content on
Social Media. This is one of the most common practices of the Internet
and it is not a crime according to Turkish Republic’s criminal law.

The reason to regulate social media or making it a crime to share
content on social media is to threaten people and force them into
self-censorship. Self-censorship is one of the most terrifying
violations of freedom of expression, information and communication. In a
constitutional state where democracy is operational, we cannot accept
the authorities to force the citizens to self-censorship.

Technology

Twitter, Facebook, Gmail and Hotmail carry information in an encrypted
form. It is almost impossible to decrypt or break encrypted information.
Having a small lock icon on the address bar of the browser and
“https://” prefix instead of “http://” ensures encrypted communication.

It is not possible for third parties to peek through these user data on
the Internet in a decrypted form. However all these data are stored in
servers in a decrypted form that are mostly operated by American
companies. These companies can see and share all user data.

According to various sources including government sources, Facebook is
sharing user data with Turkish authorities, while Twitter is refusing
data sharing at this moment.

According to the general public opinion, companies that operate Gmail
and Hotmail (Google and Microsoft) are sharing user data with
authorities over the world.

Communication in Turkish: Sosyal Medya ve Haklarımız
http://www.alternatifbilisim.org/wiki/Sosyal_Medya_ve_Haklar%C4%B1m%C4%B1z

Communication in French: Les médias sociaux et nos droits
http://www.alternatifbilisim.org/wiki/Les_m%C3%A9dias_sociaux_et_nos_droits

(Thanks to EDRi member Alternative Informatics Association – Turkey)