![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/arab-spring-a-product-of-internet-gul-says-2011-06-21_l.jpg\" "\\"arab-spring-a-product-of-internet-gul-says-2011-06-21_l\\"")
<\/p>\nANKARA \u2013 H\u00fcrriyet Daily News<\/p>\n
G\u00fcl\u2019s meeting with Schmidt came amid a heated public debate on the government\u2019s move requiring Internet users in Turkey to choose one of four content-filtering packages.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
G\u00fcl\u2019s meeting with Schmidt came amid a heated public debate on the government\u2019s move requiring Internet users in Turkey to choose one of four content-filtering packages.<\/p>\n
Under fire from international organizations for plans to filter Internet access, Turkey\u2019s president praised the role the Internet played in the eruption of the Arab Spring that has shaken reigns of regional dictators.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Internet played an important role in the Arab Spring. It would not have been as easily developed in the absence of the Internet,\u201d President Abdullah G\u00fcl told Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, according to information gathered from sources.<\/p>\n
G\u00fcl\u2019s meeting with Schmidt came amid a heated public debate on the government\u2019s move requiring Internet users in Turkey to choose one of four content-filtering packages, which was considered a kind of censorship. Speaking to journalists Monday, Schmidt said he would tell G\u00fcl there would be no use in Internet filtering during his meeting with the president.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will talk about the importance of the Internet. I will say there would be no use in Internet filtering. I will explain to him that these kinds of restrictions are of no use. I will underline the fact that restrictions won\u2019t work out, on the contrary it will solely harm Turkey\u2019s image,\u201d he told journalists who asked him what he may say to G\u00fcl. \u201cThere may be a good purpose behind these kinds of systems. Yet, if these systems do not remain transparent enough, they can be abused quite easily,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Recalling that the United States was also conservative but there was no such system like filtering, he said, \u201cTurkey may apply an Internet waning system like in the U.S. and users may report non-ethical and inappropriate contents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Recalling demand for censorship in China, Schmidt said censorship cannot be imposed effectively on the Internet and users find ways to break the bans eventually. \u201cAlthough heavy penalties are imposed in China, people access Google. Censorship and restrictions are against the spirit of the Internet. No one can succeed in this sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to Schmidt\u2019s criticisms, G\u00fcl said he was sharing the Google chief\u2019s views but stated that protection of children and families was equally important, which required every responsible institution to take necessary steps. Underlining that he was always pro-freedoms when it comes to Internet regulations, G\u00fcl said: \u201cHowever, necessary measures should be taken to preserve the family and children as well as personal rights. In this sense, your role is also important. If you do not take measures to stop such abuses, then the state intervenes to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recalling some videos violating his personal rights released by the Youtube in the past, G\u00fcl urged those who are controlling and guiding the Internet to take precautions to protect the rights of the people. The president also asked Schmidt to reinforce Google\u2019s office in Turkey, a country where more than 25 million of its people has a page on Facebook.<\/p>\n
via G\u00fcl says \u2018I am pro-freedom,\u2019 but gets Internet criticism – Hurriyet Daily News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ANKARA \u2013 H\u00fcrriyet Daily News G\u00fcl\u2019s meeting with Schmidt came amid a heated public debate on the government\u2019s move requiring Internet users in Turkey to choose one of four content-filtering packages. G\u00fcl\u2019s meeting with Schmidt came amid a heated public debate on the government\u2019s move requiring Internet users in Turkey to choose one of four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":36274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[845],"tags":[9026,2032,5542],"class_list":["post-36272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scitech","tag-free-internet","tag-google","tag-internet-filtering-rules"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}