CDT Joins Civil Society Orgs in Urging the Turkish BTK to Ensure Right to Secure and Private Communications, Encryption Are Protected

On April 20, 2023, the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) joined over 40 organizations and cybersecurity experts – including members of the Global Encryption Coalition – in releasing a joint statement calling on the Turkish government not to undermine end-to-end encryption.

From the letter:

On October 13th 2022, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey passed legislation (the “Law”) amending several existing laws, including the Electronic Communication Law, Internet Law, the Press Law and the Turkish Penal Code. The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK, in Turkish: Bilgi Teknolojileri ve İletişim Kurumu) is now tasked with drafting secondary legislation that would implement the amendments introduced in the Law. If BTK attempts to implement the surveillance and content disclosure requirements under the Electronic Communications Law for over-the-top services (OTTs), this could have the unintended consequence of undermining the use of key cybersecurity tools including strong end-to-end encryption and the protection it brings.

The undersigned civil society organisations and companies, including members of the Global Encryption Coalition, urge the BTK to ensure that the right to secure and private communications, including end-to-end encrypted communications are protected.

Read the full letter + list of signatories (as well as a translation of the letter in Turkish) here.