Right after the Gezi Park movement (uprisings in June) and then following the corruption operations on December 17, Turkish government has started to build a tremendous pressure on internet in Turkey. The first step was the amendments to Law No. 5651 (aka The Internet Law). It’s widely assumed that the ruling Ak Parti government will continue with new steps to keep up the pressure on internet whether they gain a victory or not on March 30 local elections. The plan to establish a so called “access providers union” which is a governmental body despite being called a civil initiative is already on the move and this union will be operational on May 19.
Nowadays, Ak Parti delegates and the followers of the political party are sampling out some controversial and/or non existing measures in other EU countries to substantiate their claims and rightfulness. So we decided to ask about these alleged measures to an expert in EU and interviewed European Commissioner for Digital Agenda and Vice-Presidents of the European Commission Neelie Kroes.
In this interview you won’t see us asking about how Kroes sees the situation in Turkey. We know she is casting a critical eye and we share the same view. Instead of this, we asked her about the measures and processes for prevention of Internet access in EU in order to make a comparison with Turkish regulations. (By the way, the reader of this article should note that we are also critising EU for continiously prolonging and delaying the membership progress of Turkey and making new demands over and over again. Had this process not been so prolonged, Turkish people would not be experiencing some of the nonsense we all see today.)
turk-internet.com : What are the rules in EU for the internet? What kind of sites are you blocking? And how? (Who are the complaining ones and where and what can be the done in the process, for example to take back the blocking process also)?
Nellie Kroes : Websites have to follow EU law. For example, under our Audiovisual and media services directive (AVMS Directive) works against incitement to hatred. In the EU sites can only be blocked by court order and if they are guilty of serious crime, such as child pornography hosting and sharing, or mass copyright infringement. It is much more likely that a court would order certain illegal content to be taken down from a website, than for a court to order a site to be closed.
turk-internet.com : What you are doing in Europe about privacy matters over internet? If somebody thinks his rights are abused where should they apply? If this was a very serious subject and there is a risk to be hurt (a sensitive situation maybe)… what is the process then?
Neelie Kroes : We are re-writing data protection rules to make sure companies are fined if they do not protect your personal information.
turk-internet.com : Is there any member state in Europe that has no privacy law?
Neelie Kroes : , all EU member states are covered by European law in this area.
turk-internet.com : In europe, what are the politics doing if something arise against to their privacy? is there any member state that blocking internet sites in those situations?
Neelie Kroes : No, in fact there are special exceptions to the law so that journalists are allowed to use personal information for journalistic purposes that are in the public interest. This is a balance between the right to privacy and the right to freedom of expression. Blocking of web sites as a result of privacy violations can be ordered by public authorities and courts, after having found that there is a violation of personal data protection legislation. There is no example however of a platform being blocked.
turk-internet.com : How the cyber crime act is helping against to internet problems?
Neelie Kroes : Crime happens online and it keeps people from trusting the internet. We don’t treat cybercrime differently to offline crime, but we develop news products and services to protect people, we educate people about how to avoid being a target of cybercrime and we work across borders to stop cybercrime (a new cybercrime centre operates in the Netherlands and covers all EU)
turk-internet.com : What is the phone tapping rules in europe union?
Nellie Kroes : The EU has a principle of confidentiality of communications. Tapping into communications can be done for purposes of national security, defence, public security, prevent and investigate criminal offences, etc. To do so, it must be foreseen in national legislation, which must set forth guarantees (it must be a proportionate measure).
turk-internet.com : Is there any central filtering mecanism in any EU member? If not, why?
Nellie Kroes : Different legal acts leaves Member States a discretion in the regulation of online content and the removal of illegal content. According to its Article 15 of the e-Commerce Directive Member States shall not impose a general obligation on providers when providing the services covered by relevant provisions of this Directive to monitor the information which they transmit or store nor a general obligation actively to seek facts or circumstances indicating illegal activity.
turk-internet.com : What is red line for internet in EU? What kinds of practices are not acceptable? And what are you doing if a member state tries to make some rules against the red lines of EU?
Nellie Kroes : Member States shall not introduce a general obligation to monitor as provided in Article 15 of the eCommerce Directive. This is too much of a burden on a website like Twitter or a search engine like Google.
We are developing other rules such as “net neutrality” to prevent telecoms operators from discriminating against certain websites or services.
For the Turkish translation of this interview click Neelie Kroes : Avrupa’da Web Sitelerini Sadece Mahkemeler ve Ancak Çok Ciddi Suçlarda Kapatabilirler