Half of Turkey is not on the Internet. The non-urbanized, eastern, and female half, of course.

I saw a tweet about a recent legislation which makes it easier to put an administrative ban on the Internet. “I will pay 57 liras a month to connect and you will decide which pages I visit, ha! This must be a joke.” There was truth in this joke, however, as is in all jokes.

We already know that Turkey has one of the most expensive Internet connections in the world. Did you know that Turkey also is on top of the world concerning the number of banned web pages per IPs in use? Turkey is number one in the world in banning the Internet after being the world’s leader in the number of journalists in jail. The data I am talking about are the number of claims for content removal submitted by official agents to Google. Turkey is by far number one of the world. Actually, the US has first place when you look at the number of court decisions for content removal. But Internet penetration is much higher in the US compared to Turkey. If you look at the decisions per IP in use, Turkey ranks first (For those who are not familiar, an IP address is the license plate you have to get every time you are online.) So, the Internet in Turkey is both expensive and restricted. And we are talking about expanding the Internet economy in Turkey. We are daydreaming, if you ask me.

The freedom of thought and expression is the keystone of the innovation process. Innovations flourish only when you can put new wine in old bottles. For that, individuals must have the freedom to have different perspectives. It is not the age of the industrial revolution anymore; it is that of the ICT revolution. The steam engine was the top invention of the industrial revolution; one which led to many other innovations. The inventions of the age today are personal computers and the Internet connecting computers to each other all around the globe. Denis Papin had a great role in the invention of the steam engine. He was French, but did his work in England. Why? Simply because the Catholic-Protestant quarrel in France in the eighteenth century had demolished the freedom of thought and expression. Papin, a Protestant himself, moved to England, which at that time was at the height of freedom of thought and speech. At the end of the day, the steam engine was invented and changed the world.

Today, the Internet has changed the way things are done in all aspects of life. This will bring the biggest changes for making money. This is what they call the Internet of things, and this is where the Internet economy enters the picture. At the dawn of this new era, we can identify two types of countries: those which facilitate access to the Internet and ICTS, and those who impede the access to the Internet and ICTs. In Turkey, the Internet is both the most expensive in the world and the most restricted. The chart below by TEPAV researcher Bilgi Aslankurt shows the story. On the horizontal axis is the bandwidth price and on the vertical axis is the number of content removal by court order per IP address. Turkey breaks all the records here! It has no rival, except for North Korea of course.

The rest of the world is making everything for easier access to the Internet. What is the problem with Turkey? I have a simple one for you: Turkey has no idea what it is doing. As a result, half of Turkey is not on the Internet. The non-urbanized, eastern, and female half, of course. Almost half of the e-mails in Turkey do not have any attachments. The rate is around 20 percent in Europe. People in Turkey use the Internet as a chat room. Turkey is the sixth of the world in the number of Facebook users, and second in Foursquare. True, Turkey can shift to the internet of things; but it will take time. Meanwhile it will be too late.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 28.01.2014