Turkey enacted a new social media rule Oct. 1, 2020, and several social media platforms are not happy about it. The law “requires [companies] to establish a formal presence within the country” which will increase the companies’ “liability for harmful content.” Originally passed through parliament in July, the law also requires companies to appoint a Turkish representative to respond to content complaints and implement court orders.
According to local authorities, the law exists to “fight internet crime and determine liability.” This essentially means that social media companies that want Turkish users to continue accessing their service must abide by the country’s rules. Unfortunately, many companies, including Facebook, refuse to comply.
What Does This Mean?
If companies refuse to comply with this new law, “they can face penalties” such as heavy fines of 10 million Turkish liras (~$1.3 million) or 30 million liras (~$3.8 million) in December 2020. Companies will also face an ad ban in January 2021 and “have their bandwidth throttled by 90% in another six months.” This means that users will be effectively barred from using most popular social media platforms.
According to TechRadar , several other social media platforms have been blocked or banned in Turkey, including:
- BlogSpot
- Deezer
- Dropbox
- Facebook (and Messenger)
- Google apps (e.g., Docs, Drive, Translate, etc.)
- IMDB
- Metacafe
- OneDrive
- Periscope
- Wikipedia
- WikiLeaks
- WordPress
- YouTube
- Vimeo
The heavy-handed restrictions are linked to the revision of Turkey’s Internet Act of 2007 in February 2014. This “omnibus law … further impacted internet freedoms” and is the main reason Turkey is now classed as “Not Free” by the Freedom House Index .
Earlier in the year, according to MediaNama, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan noted that social media platforms must either be “completely banned or controlled. He made this declaration after his daughter’s family received “personal attacks” on Twitter.
What Happens Now?
Human rights activists are not convinced that the Turkish government can uphold this law. Back in 2019, before the law was even implemented, Turkey blocked access to “408,000 sites, 40,000 tweets, 10,000 YouTube videos and 6,200 Facebook shares,” according to Sevket Uyanik, an online rights activist.
Activists have described the new law as “draconian” and stifling—another attempt by the government to “chill free speech.”
Emma Sinclair-Webb, senior Turkish researcher for Human Rights Watch stated, “We strongly urge the social media companies not to comply with the new law. It sets a dangerous precedent both for freedom of expression in Turkey and the rest of the world.”
For now, it looks like the law faces a fair amount of social and, possibly legal, opposition although any case could take years to reach Turkey’s constitutional court.
