Turkey’s Communication Minister Ahmet Arslan on Friday said a local search engine and email service that compatible with national culture and values would soon replace Google and Gmail.
Speaking in an interview before the weekend, Arslan said Turkey needs to store user data within the country and ensure that communications can be fully analyzed domestically.
Arslan’s remarks came after recent debates over the reliability of the US-based email service provider Gmail on securing the private information of users, following the leaked personal emails of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son-in-law and Energy Minister Berat Albayrak.
Details such as the service’s name, logo and organizational structure have yet to be announced.
Countries such as China, Russia and Iran have been using domestic search engines and email service providers, competing with foreign providers like Google and Gmail, which are mostly blocked by the authorities.