Press Release

14 August, 2020

İfade Özgürlüğü Derneği (İFÖD – Freedom of Expression Association) has been set up formally in August 2017 protect and foster the right to freedom of opinion and expression. The Association envisions a society in which everyone enjoys freedom of opinion and expression and the right to access and disseminate information and knowledge.

The 2019 EngelliWeb Report of the Freedom of Expression Association (“İFÖD”) written by Yaman Akdeniz and Ozan Güven includes overview of and considerations on increasing Internet censorship and access blocking practices by the end of 2019 in Turkey. This assessment is predominantly conducted by reference to the application of Law No. 5651 on Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Suppression of Crimes Committed by Means of Such Publications, which was enacted about 13 years ago and other subsequent regulations in Turkey.

As a matter of fact, no statistical data on websites blocked from Turkey was published either by the former Telecommunications Communication Presidency (“TIB”) or its successor Information Technologies and Communication Board (“BTK”). Moreover, no statistical data on blocked websites, news articles (URL-based) and/or social media content has ever been published by the Association of Access Providers (“ESB”).

İFÖD report includes detailed statistical information for the year of 2019 and also provides an overview for the 2007-2019 period on blocked websites, news articles (URL-based) and social media content. It is the intention of İFÖD to share such data and analysis with the general public on a regular basis. Therefore, further reports will be prepared and published; the first in October 2020 with regards to the first half of 2020 and a subsequent report in June 2021 as a year-end report for 2020.

According to the EngelliWeb 2019 report access to 408.494 websites was blocked from Turkey by the end of 2019. Access to a total of 61.049 websites and domain names was blocked only in 2019. Furthermore, the report highlights that 130.000 URLs, 7.000 Twitter accounts, 40.000 tweets, 10.000 YouTube videos, and 6.200 Facebook content were blocked subject to Law No. 5651 and other legal provisions by the end of 2019. In addition to these, nearly 50.000 content (URLs) were removed by content providers subject to access-blocking orders by the end of 2019.