Turkey is under fire over new "Orwellian" internet curbs that critics say constitute a distressing slide towards authoritarianism in the aspiring EU member state.
Parliament passed the measures late on Wednesday, the latest controversial moves as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeks to bring the judiciary and police to heel to contain a snowballing and deeply embarrassing corruption probe sullying the upper echelons of power.
In Brussels, European Commission spokesman Peter Stano said the restrictions, including the blocking of web pages without a court order, raised serious concerns and needed to be revised in line with European standards.
Under the new measures, Turkey's Telecommunications Communications Presidency (TIB) can demand that providers block pages deemed insulting or as invading privacy - and without the need for a judge.
The body will also be able to request users' online communications and traffic information from hosting providers, which will have to retain up to two years' worth of data.
Lawmaker Faruk Logoglu from the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) told AFP the measures were "nothing but a way to intimidate the people, to tell them 'Big Brother is watching you'".
Logoglu said it was a "way of suffocating and rendering forgotten" the corruption probe which Erdogan has blamed on allies of a friend-turned-foe Islamic preacher living in self-imposed exile in the United States.
Yaman Akdeniz, law professor at Bilgi University in Istanbul, described the curbs as "Orwellian", saying they would have a chilling effect in a country where Facebook and Twitter are platforms for political discussion rather than just socialising.
"I would call it an Orwellian nightmare," he told AFP.
"Turkey has become a step closer to countries like Iran, Syria and China, rather than moving towards the European Union."
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has warned that the curbs could "significantly impact free expression, investigative journalism, the protection of journalists' sources, political discourse and access to information over the internet".
Reporters Without Borders said the aim was "to reinforce cyber-censorship, government control of the internet and surveillance".
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called it a "slide into internet authoritarianism" in a country that it says is the leading jailer of journalists worldwide.
The Islamic-rooted government rejects the criticism, with Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc saying there is "no such thing as internet censorship. We are freer compared to many other countries and have freedom of press."
