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Deutsch: Türkei vertagt Pläne zur Filterung des Internets
Having been fiercely criticized since May 2011 over its Internet filtering system (Procedures and Principles regarding Safe Internet Use) planned to be imposed on 22 August, the Information Technologies Board (BTK) has decided to delay the introduction of the system till 22 November 2011 and to reduce the number of filters that are now said to cover adult content.
The government's plan was to force Internet users to choose from among a list of filtering packages meant to block certain unspecified websites.
Under the modified version, Turkish Internet users will no longer be obliged to install the BTK filtering software on their computers and the number of alternative versions of the software has been reduced from four to two ("family" and "child").
Also, under the new version, filtering is optional. A subscriber who does not want to choose an Internet profile to be brought to the BTK will be able to access the Internet without a profile or filtering system.
The BTK's changes follow recommendations from the Internet Council, which is a part of the Transportation and Communications Ministry. Serhat Özeren, the head of the Internet Council stated for the Anatolia news agency that BTK had paid attention to the opinions and proposals of civil society when revising the regulation adding that the introduction of the regulations had been postponed in order to give time for service providers to prepare their infrastructure for the new system.
The criteria for the two optional Internet profiles would be determined soon and would be periodically updated.
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