Turkey blocks VPN services before elections – Kommersant
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Turkey’s Information Technology and Communications Authority (BTK) has demanded that local Internet providers block access to 16 popular VPN services. Writes about this Financial Times with reference to documents in her possession. This comes a few months before local elections, which will be held in Turkey in March. Among such services are Proton VPN, TunnelBear, Surfshark, CyberGhost. According to the FT, the regulator has required providers to report to it on how the blocking is progressing. BTK did not respond to the publication’s request. The FT checked VPN access in Turkey after this – many services have now become more difficult to connect to.
According to Andy Yen, CEO of Proton VPN, the number of users of the services in Turkey grew sharply before the Turkish presidential elections in May last year, and after a major earthquake in February, when the country’s authorities temporarily limited access to Twitter.
“Using a VPN is not a criminalized activity prosecuted by law. People use (such services.— “Kommersant”) to protect their communications,” said Yaman Akdeniz, co-founder of the human rights group Turkish Association for Freedom of Expression (IFOD). According to IFOD, the number of blocked websites in Turkey has risen significantly in recent years, from 350,000 in 2018 to around 900,000. Earlier this week, X (formerly Twitter) said it had “taken action” on 15 posts the requirement of the Turkish court. The service explained this by saying that if it had not complied with the requirement, it could have been blocked in Turkey.
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