President Erdoğan: The biggest weakness of digitalization is the control over data getting monopolized
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addressed via videoconference the 4th International Woman and Justice Summit.
Drawing attention to the main theme of the summit, ‘Remaining Human in the Digital Age,” President Erdoğan noted that digitalization made itself felt in every area, from daily shopping, household goods and politics to business world, education and justice.
“MECHANISMS THAT DO NOT WORK TO SERVE PEOPLE PRODUCE OPPRESSION IN THE END”
Underscoring that it was impossible for any development that did not focus on people or did not aim to serve people to be valuable or lasting, President Erdoğan said: “Mechanisms that do not work to serve people regarding all their needs, both materially and morally, produce oppression in the end. That is why, we have always taken action with the principle, ‘keep people alive so that the state will live,’ while governing the country. We have endeavored to make this understanding prevail in every place and every issue which concerns human, from individual to family and from family to the society, without any discrimination.”
Stating that they showed a much bigger sensitivity in the resolution of such problems as violence and discrimination with which women were faced in particular, President Erdoğan noted that they used every means of the technology in their efforts.
“MONOPOLIZATION IN PRODUCTION AND TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES LEADS TO PERILOUS OUTCOMES”
President Erdoğan noted: “The world has been suffering from the adverse change which has been taking place for nearly a century in the global political and economic power balances. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated this change. It has been bitterly seen during this process that how monopolization in production, distribution, trade, technology and manpower resources in the world can lead to perilous outcomes. The difficulties that the developed countries face in the fight against the pandemic have laid bare that political and economic power are not enough alone, but fair sharing is definitely a must as well.”
Pointing to what he called a similar threat in the field of digitalization, President Erdoğan noted: “The biggest weakness of digitalization, which is becoming increasingly widespread in every area, from security, education and healthcare to energy, personal habits and commercial activities, is the control over data getting monopolized. This crooked situation, in which a few companies control the digital data of the entire world, signals huge problems to be experienced in the future. It is not difficult to estimate the problems that such a concentration of power will cause in a period during which even the wars have now become digital-based in the world.”
“THE VOLUME OF THE INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY SECTOR IN TURKEY HAS INCREASED TO $132 BILLION”
Further stressing that Turkey had reached quite a good level in digitalization, President Erdoğan said: “The volume of the information and technology sector in our country has increased from $20 billion to $132 billion over the past 18 years. The investments of the sector in our country have surpassed TL100 billion. The number of subscribers to mobile services has reached a number that is as same as our population. The number of broadband Internet subscribers has left behind 77 million, the number of fixed broadband subscribers 14 million, the number of fiber subscribers 3.5 million and the number of subscribers to machine to machine communication 6 million.”
