Turks stage nationwide march against internet filter system

Turkish people launched a nationwide march in more than 30 provinces on Sunday to protest government internet filter system which is expected to start on Aug. 22.

About 10,000 Turks, women and men, old and young, teachers and students, businessmen and engineers, gathered in the Taksim square, the center of Turkish largest city of Istanbul.

Shouting slogans against internet ban and filter system, they were marching through the Istiklal street, the most famous and important in the country.

The main banners and slogans are: "Get your nose out off my browse," "Let me surf," "We don't need protection," "Free banned links now," "Don't touch my internet."

Internet users have been organizing marches on different websites, since the filter application became focus of public debate in Turkey in late April.

About 600,000 people had stated they attend marches on May 15 for an event called "Do not touch my Internet" on the social networking website of Facebook.

Other Internet websites also include calls for their users to join the marches, including sansurekarsi.com, yasaklamakyasaktir. com, eksisozluk.com, sansuresansur.blogspot.com and others.

Protesters march simultaneously in 35 Turkish provinces, including Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, Antalya and Trabzon.

Marches are also organized in Germany's Koln, Netherlands' Amsterdam and Austria's Vienna cities to match with Turkey's, according to eksisozluk.com.

Under a decision on "Rules and Procedures of the Safety of Internet Use," approved by the Prime Ministry's Information Technologies Board in February, Internet users in Turkey will have to choose one from four Internet packages: family, children, domestic or standard.

The list of websites filtered by each package will be decided by the board but will not be made public. The change will be implemented starting Aug. 22.

Experts noted that the Prime Ministry's Information Technologies Board approving the filtering regulation is inconsistent with Turkish laws and with the country's Constitution.

But Turkish authorities claim the decision will only serve to protect children from pornographic websites.

Experts also said that the application is expected to slow down the speed of access to websites. Tayfun Acarer, chairman of the Information Technologies Board said earlier this week that the filter application aimed to address the concerns of conservative parents who are unable to police their children's Internet use themselves.

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