President of Turkey Abdullah Gul has used his Twitter account to voice his disapproval for some web blocking practices carried out in the country. Google services such as YouTube are subject to blocks because of content posted by users and deemed offensive by Turkish authorities.
Turkey blocked YouTube in 2008 after videos surfaced describing Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, as a homosexual and an alcoholic. The country has been scrutinized by human rights watchdogs who urge it to reform restrictive Internet laws unexpected of a country seeking membership of the European Union.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) revealed earlier this year that Turkey is blocking some 3,700 Internet sites for arbitrary and political reasons. Turkey, however, maintains that websites are blocked for offenses that include child pornography, encouraging suicide or insults against Kemal Ataturk.
“I know there are lots of complaints about bans on YouTube and Google,” President Gul said in a tweet. “I am definitely against them being closed down. I have ordered responsible institutions for a solution. I asked for a change in regulations on merit.”
Whether Gul’s stance on the issue will mean anything for Turkish Internet users remains to be seen as the office of President in the country is more or less symbolic, with real power being held by the Prime Minister.
Result for: internet users
According to Google’s Doubleclick Ad Planner 1000 list, Facebook is the leading website in the world, reaching 540 million unique users, good for over 35 percent of the entire world’s Internet population.
The social networking giant had 570 billion page views, topping the list.
Google’s list tracks the top 1000 sites in the world, ranked in order by unique user reach. While Google would likely have topped the list, easily, they did not include any of their properties (Google search, YouTube, etc.) in an effort to keep impartiality.
Yahoo was close behind Facebook, at 490 million unique visitors, reaching 31.8 percent of the world’s Internet users. In terms of page views, Yahoo could not even compete, with only 70 billion views.
Combined, Microsoft has the most traffic of any company in the world, with Live having 370 million unique visitors, Wikipedia having 310 million unique visitors, MSN having 280 million unique visitors and Microsoft.com having 230 million. In terms of page views, Live had 39 billion, Wiki had 7.9 billion, MSN had 11 billion and Microsoft had 3.3 billion.
Google gets its data from computer sources such as Google Toolbar, opt-in Google Analytics data, and third-party research.
Result for: internet users
The German top court has ruled this week that Internet users must password-protect their Wi-Fi, or face a fine if someone accesses their connection and then downloads music or movies illegally.
Those with unsecured connections face up to a 100 euro fine if “a third party takes advantage” and is then caught doing so.
“Private users are obligated to check whether their wireless connection is adequately secured to the danger of unauthorized third parties abusing it to commit copyright violation,” reads the court decision.
With that being said, the court did say the users were not responsible for the illegal content downloaded by those accessing their unsecured connections.
Additionally, the court said users would only be expected to add a password when they first set up their router, and not need to constantly update to the latest protections as they become available.
The ruling followed a lawsuit filed by a musician who sued an individual user for illegally downloading his music. The user proved he was away on vacation when the music was downloaded, but did admit he had unsecured Wi-Fi.
