According to a New Report, Internet Freedom in Turkey Has Declined!

According to the “Freedom on the Internet in 2023” report by the US-based human rights organization Freedom House, Turkey’s internet freedom has steadily declined over the last decade. The country was categorized as “not free” in terms of freedoms, scoring only 30 points out of 100.

The assessment of internet use is made under three categories. These are

Barriers to Access
Content Limitations
User Rights Violations
Turkey scored 12 points out of 25 for “Barriers to Access”, 10 points out of 35 for “Content Restrictions” and 8 points out of 40 for “Violations of User Rights”, resulting in a score of 30 out of 100 and was categorized as “not free”.

What are the Factors Hindering Turkey’s Internet Freedom?

The report recognizes the overall reliability and speed of Turkey’s internet, but points out that infrastructure issues still hinder access in many regions.

As of early 2023, 83.4% of the population uses the internet, while 94.1% of households have internet access. The report also highlights that the ongoing economic crisis and inflation have made internet services unaffordable for many.

The report also reveals that a large amount of content, particularly news articles, is blocked and that more than 712,000 domains and 150,000 URLs were blocked as of December 2022.