Who controls your access to information, and determines what you can see and what you cannot? To a surprising degree, Recep Tayyip Erdogan does.
“Turkey has requested removal of massive amount of online content from Google in 10 years,” Turkish Minute, November 23, 2023:
Turkish government agencies have requested the removal of a total of 90,400 web pages and other content from Google in the last decade, Voice of America (VOA) Turkish edition reported on Wednesday, citing data from a report by the virtual private network company Surfshark.
According to the report, 150 countries have submitted a total of 335,000 removal requests to Google in the last 10 years. These requests included the removal of 3,870,000 different websites and pages claimed to be “objectionable.”
Turkey was the fourth country, after Russia, North Korea and India, that most frequently requested the removal of content from Google, submitting 18,900 requests for the removal of 90,400 web pages and other content in 10 years, which corresponds to an average of 5 pieces of online content per day.
During the same period, Russia submitted a total of 215,000 content removal requests to Google, accounting for 85 percent of all requests. North Korea came in second, submitting 27,000 content removal requests to Google over the past decade, and India was in third place with 20,000 requests.
The report showed that “national security” is the most common reason cited by governments to get unwanted content removed, with 27 percent, followed by “copyright” (19 percent) and “defamation” (10 percent). Turkey leads in citing defamation as the reason, representing over a fifth of all defamation claims with more than 7,600 requests.
According to the report, the number of requests worldwide has increased approximately 13 times, rising from 7,000 annually to 91,000 in the past 10 years, or from 19 requests per day to 249….
Pray Hard says
Wow, so many crybaby savages …
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I dunno what Google actually does, but whenever they – or any other organization – get such a request, they should implement that only in the country making the request. Like if Turkey requests that links about the Armenian genocide be removed, such a request should be made applicable only to sites w/ Turkish IP addresses: anything beyond that should still be able to access it. Similarly for requests from Moscow, Delhi or Pyongyang, or indeed anyone else
It’s another thing that Google is even more to the left of our government & would therefore remove anti-Left content on their own
bill says
I just Googled Armenian Genocide to see what is there and there is a whole string of web sites listed there, I also ggd Chinese famine of 1942. Same number of results, So I do not know what the govts. are asking to be removed
Mick says
Turks, Kurds and Azeris (Tatars) still manage to consign the genocide of Armenian, (plus Bulgarian and Greek) Xians to the back pages.
Turkish MPs once lobbied for the French killings in Algeria from 56 to 62, to be defined as genocide. See Robert Fisk ‘The Great War…’.
bagsgroove says
Those moslems want the whole universe to be to their liking and to hell with everyone else !
Emmanuel says
They are a big problem and they want to control the world
Michael Paul Skok says
Turkey should be removed from NATO. But that won’t happen as long as Joe Biden is in the WH.
George says
The purpose of Biden is to destroy the world in my opinion he’s the muppet of Obama witch he was raised as Muslim and most of the Muslims teaching the fanatic side of history
Jayell1 says
I’d just like the Turkish authorities to explain to everyone why they think they have some right to dictate what should or should not be acceptable to Google or the rest of the world. Or are they getting just a little bit above themselves?
Hoi Polloi says
Next the Turks will send a clot of thugs to beat down the workers as they emerge from the building since they got away with that in the shadow of the White House. Why not try it again?
Crisse Bishop says
Only what can be proven false or subjective should be removed. If can be proven true, leave it.
somehistory says
And on the topic of people controlling what others are allowed to see, read, hear, etc.
The Western Journal
“Group Celebrates After VA Facility Removes Bible from Table That Honors POW/MIA”
“Boy, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation sure showed them.
Earlier this month, the MRFF discovered that, at a Lexington, Kentucky, Veterans Administration facility, the so-called “Missing Man Table,” which commemorates prisoners of war and those missing in action, had a Bible on it!”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/group-celebrates-after-va-facility-removes-bible-from-table-that-honors-pow-mia/ar-AA1kNePQ?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=890633e25d4141bba5d77924d1ef242b&ei=34