Turkey: Govt. Internet Filtering Program Continues to Cause Friction

The regulations, which are supposed to go into effect later this summer, have recently been defended by Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister, Bulent Arinc, who said the filtering is designed to keep internet users from accessing pornographic and violent material, as well as sites that might be terror-related. Today, Arinc again defended the filtering program, saying among the sites to be weeded out by the state's filters are some that show you "how to kill your wife."

The regulations -- which would require each internet subscriber in Turkey to sign up for one of four filtering programs -- have recently also led to a war of words between Arinc and Umit Boyner, the head of Turkey's largest association of businessmen and industrialists, with the Deputy PM accusing her of wanting to "liberalize" porn because of her criticism of the filtering plan. More details here.