Erdogan's Turkey and NetClean Planning to Curtail Internet Freedoms?

Erdogan's Turkey and NetClean Planning to Curtail Internet Freedoms? (GlobalvoicesOnline).

For a few weeks now, digitally active circles in Turkey have been displaying concern over a move by the Turkish government to introduce new Internet controls.

A recent Hürriyet Daily News piece reported that Turkey is planning to work with a Swedish company, NetClean, to fight against child sexual abuse cases (CSA) as part of a supposed €40M deal.

But the Hurriet Daily News report also implied exactly what many digital activists already fear, namely that CSA is just a pretext to intensify state pressure on Internet freedoms in Turkey: the last two restrictive Internet Laws passed in Turkey were created primarily in the name of fighting against CSA.

Nevertheless, the government passionately falls back on the same apparent motivation in each subsequent attack on the web.

Perhaps the best-written post about NetClean's cooperation with Ankara is a Turkish language blog post written by the blogger Kus on network23.org. Kus emphasized that NetClean services will primarily be used for URL-based bans. With the notorious new Internet Law approved earlier this year, the government planned to move towards URL-based blocking instead of shutting down websites. However, with weak domestic cyber-capacity, the government appears to have decided, like many authoritarian states do, to buy targeting services abroad.

Many activists believe NetClean's appearance across the country's internet space may mark the beginning of a real Deep Packet Inspection system of surveillance by the Turkish State, justified under the new law. Prof. Kırlıdoğ's guest post at the EDRi site sums up these anxieties.

DPI surveillance implies that user content may also be subject to increasing government control from now. As noted in a post on the ars technica blog in January last year:

Microsoft has released a security advisory concerning a fraudulent digital certificate for all Google domains apparently created by the Turkish government.

The certificate, which was created by a subsidiary Certificate Authority issued to the transportation directorate of the city government of Ankara, could have been used to intercept SSL traffic as part of a “man in the middle” attack to spoof Google's encryption certificate and decrypt secure Web sessions to Google Plus and GMail. Hmmm....Anyone with half a brain can see this is about to become an Iranian style Turkey....Islamic totalitarian rule.

Dutch Media Discussion on “Gangsta Islam”

Source picture here.

Dutch Media Discussion on “Gangsta Islam” (BadNewsFromTheNetherlands).


In some Dutch media, a discussion has started on a phenomenon called, “Gangster Islam”. The psychologist, Timon Dias, writes that the synthesis between criminality, street life and Islamic religion is a unique European phenomenon.

One of its characteristics is that its members are criminals with a Muslim background who are not very religious, yet see themselves as part of the Muslim community. However criminal they are, they will never say anything negative about Islam.

The Muslim ex-politician, Ibrahim Wijbenga, who warns of the growing influence of the Gangster-Islam, points out that many of the jihadis and the young Muslim extremists have a criminal past. Wijbenga has often been threatened with physical violence, and has had to have police protection.

Last year Wijbenga, who works in Amsterdam against radicalization of young people, was secured months because of his criticism of jihadists, who sent him photographs of automatic AK-47 rifles. "If we, the silent majority of Muslims, do nothing, these criminals hijack our religion."

"It is likely that returning jihadis end up in serious crime, then they commit an attack here. They see Europe as a cash cow that the global jihad can finance. The proceeds of robberies and property of infidels are considered war booty "An informant within the jihadist circles confirms this:". Returned jihadis go back the wrong path, just like before leaving for Syria. They call their crimes here in the Netherlands 'lesser jihad'.

Studies by sociologist Mark Elchardus showed that half of all Muslim students in Brussels, Ghent and Antwerp are anti-Semitic; this percentage is probably much higher among Muslim criminals. Expressions Muslim youth which says 'when I see them, I want them stabbing right' and making Nazi salute toward Jews, are not uncommon.