According to the Freedom House report titled “Freedom on the Net 2023: The Repressive Power of Artificial Intelligence”, the trend of decline in internet freedom in Turkey over the past decade continues.
The report, which also contains significant findings regarding the use of AI by governments, emphasizes that many authoritarian regimes use AI technology to increase their censorship capabilities.
The Freedom House report titled “Freedom on the Net 2023: The Repressive Power of Artificial Intelligence” has been released.
The report found that Turkey remained the only Not Free country in Europe. Turkey also received the region’s largest score decline, losing 2 points for a new score of 30 on the project’s 100-point scale.
Other findings on Europe include:
- Iceland, despite registering a 1-point decline, retained its status as the world’s best environment for internet freedom for the ninth year in a row, scoring 94 on Freedom on the Net’s 100-point scale. Estonia followed closely with 93 points.
- Of the nine European countries assessed in the report, all are rated Free except Turkey (Not Free) and Hungary (Partly Free).
- In Hungary, a telecommunications company with reported links to the government further consolidated its market position, acquiring a majority of Vodafone’s Hungarian business during the coverage period.
- Serbia experienced a score decline of 1 point as the government continued to propagate disinformation on social media. In 2022, Meta removed more than 5,000 accounts linked to the ruling Serbian Progressive Party that spread progovernment narratives on Facebook.
- In the United Kingdom, the Online Safety Bill, a sweeping piece of legislation that created new obligations for platforms to remove illegal and certain “harmful” content, moved through Parliament during the coverage period, ultimately passing in September 2023.
- The report also found that while advances in artificial intelligence (AI) offer benefits for society, they have been used to increase the scale and efficiency of digital repression. Governments are leveraging automated systems to strengthen their information controls and hone forms of online censorship. Simultaneously, distributors of disinformation have turned to AI tools to fabricate images, audio, and text, further blurring the lines between reality and deception.
Turkey Ranked Among ‘Worst Countries’
The report says global internet freedoms declined for the 13th consecutive year – and that Turkey has become one of the worst countries in the world in terms of internet freedoms.
The report underlined that attacks on free expression grew more common around the world while Artificial Intelligence, AI, has allowed governments to enhance and refine online censorship.
“While an improvement in internet freedom was observed in 20 countries around the world this year, a decline was detected in 29 countries, including Turkey. Unfortunately, there is a contraction in internet freedoms around the world as a result of authoritarian pressure,” Gurkan Ozturan, Media Freedom Rapid Response Coordinator at the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, one of the authors of the Freedom House report, told BIRN.
Freedom House listed Turkey as “not free” in its internet freedoms index, scoring only 30 points in total out of 100 points.
The summary of Turkey’s report includes the following points:
- The report states that online troll armies spread government-sponsored disinformation, and it highlights that journalists, activists, and social media users continue to face legal charges due to their online content.
- It emphasizes that the Disinformation Law, which came into effect last year, has been used to silence opposition politicians and journalists. The report notes that censorship is widespread, leading to the blocking of numerous articles and social media posts.
- The report mentions that in Turkey, internet access can be sporadically restricted. Examples cited include restrictions following the bomb attack on Istiklal Avenue in November and after the earthquakes on February 6.
- It criticizes the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), the agency responsible for regulating and overseeing the telecommunications sector in Turkey. The report highlights that the BTK has a separate budget, its members are appointed by the government, and its decision-making processes lack transparency.
- The report indicates that numerous types of content, especially news articles, have been blocked. As of December 2022, it notes that over 712,000 domain names and 150,000 URLs were blocked. The report also mentions that websites focusing on Turkey’s military operations, Kurdish news, and criticism of the government have been blocked. Additionally, it states that 918 websites were blocked on grounds of insulting the president, endangering national security, and promoting drug use.
You can reach the full report here.