Pressure groups have stepped up efforts to end Internet censorship in Turkey, after that it was revealed that the European state was responsible for 28% of all requests received by Google to remove content "offensive".
The new figures were published in the report on the bi-annual transparency of the search engine giant, which revealed that the Turkish authorities have submitted a total of 501 applications during the first six months of 2012 against only 45 during the same period last year. This sharp increase was seen by commentators as a worrying increase already oppressive Internet censorship policies of the country; the Turkish authorities asked that the content on the current government, former president and everything deemed offensive to its national values be immediately removed.
Google received 20.939 applications take content down during the first half of the year from various nation states, although it expressly reserves the right to refuse such requests where the deems appropriate. According to the official report of the company, the new figures show the unpleasant truth that "government surveillance is on the rise."
The current regime of web censorship in Turkey bans access to currently over 8,000 locations worldwide. Turkish lobby groups and opposition movements are facing a losing battle for web freedom, with all Internet traffic through the state department Turk Telecom, giving the government a huge amount of power to block that they consider questionable content.
According to Yaman Akdeniz, a professor at Bilgi University in Turkey, a mixture of filters and blocking of websites assured that "Internet censorship was established" in Turkey.
Those looking to avoid website blocking mechanisms and access to the press without censorship are increasingly turning to the VPN server, giving them the power to hide their IP address and around some line filters government by routing their web traffic through a VPN server based in an uncensored country. A VPN server also retains the true identity of the hidden user, allowing them to browse online without fear of surveillance or external obstruction.
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