Turkey’s New Social Media Law and Internet Freedom

Turkey's New Social Media Law

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok and others have been fined more than $1 million each under Turkey’s new social media law. The government says the platforms have failed to appoint a Turkey manager to attend critical issues. Here’s all you need to know about the clampdown.

In a not-so-surprising development, Turkey slapped a hefty fine on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Periscope, TikTok and YouTube for violating the country’s new social media law. Turkey’s AKP government, headed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, fined the social media platforms more than $1 million each for breaching the new law. 

According to many civil-rights activists, the new law is an attempt to suppress opinions the government doesn’t like. The platforms will have to pay 10 million Turkish lira, equivalent to $1.2 million as, according to the government, they missed the deadline to deploy their representatives in Turkey.

Muzzling words 

The new law was adopted a few months ago but came into force in October 2020. It gives the government more power to monitor and screen what people say on the internet. 

Under the new law, social platforms are required to keep Turkish users’ data within Turkey itself and should move their servers to the country. The law also wants the companies to implement Turkey courts’ orders directing them to remove objectionable content. If the platforms fail to obey the rules they have to face punishment. This includes fines, cuts in advertising monies, bans, blocks and other restrictions.  

Companies such as Twitter, Google and Facebook do not really want to appoint a country officer for Turkey. If they do, that would mean the person should work closely with the government and execute their gag orders in a matter of 48 hours, as the law mandates. That’s a risk the global social media giants do not want to take at this point in history. In many geographies, civil rights activists accuse them of colluding with governments to suppress dissent.  Many, including international observers and opposition parties in Turkey, criticise the move. They say it is an attempt by the Erdogan regime to control mass media and silence those who criticise the Islamist government. 

Now what?

The social media companies will have to appoint a Turkey manager or face the fines. The government has given them a 30-day ultimatum. If they breach this, more fines and actions would follow. 

The platforms risk facing an advertising ban if they do not follow the instructions in another six months. The government is also planning to choke them by reducing their bandwidth, at first by a half, and then by 90 per cent. The social media companies have not paid heed so far. But they cannot ignore the government diktat for long. If they don’t comply, that might eventually result in their exit from Turkey. 

Turkey is an important market for social media companies. According to available, and reliable, data sources, the European country has an internet penetration of about 70 per cent (India has about 40 per cent, while China has about 60 per cent). Turkey has the fifth-largest internet user base in Europe. These platforms garner significant revenues from this market, which has a vibrant social media community. According to We Are Social, in 2017 the Turkish netizen spent an average of 1 hour and 39 minutes on social networks per day. This makes Turkey the ninth most socially engaged nation in the world. 

Tukey and social media platforms: A history

Among the social media platforms, Facebook enjoys the most popularity in Turkey. Reports suggest it censored sensitive anti-government political content in the past. LinkedIn is growing fast in Turkey and has 26.5 million users. Twitter is also popular. Several political figures and celebrities use it. President Erdogan himself has an account on the platform.

Youtube has a turbulent history with Turkey. It has been banned several times in the country starting from 2014. The first instances were in the years 2014 and 2015. Images of prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz who was held hostage by far-left militants were shown on the platform. 

In December 2016, following the assasination of Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov at a museum in Ankara, Turkey blocked access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and WhatsApp. Accessing social media since then has been difficult reportedly due to “severe slowdowns.” 

Turkey was on the 2010 list of ‘countries under surveillance’ by Reporters Without Borders. In the latest World Press Freedom Index 2020 published by RSF, the country ranks 154 among 180 countries.  

In 2011 Turkish authorities reached out to internet service providers and website hosting companies with a list of keywords to be banned. The list included words like ‘free,’ ‘fat’, and ‘pregnant.’ Not to mention sites that criticise Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Islamist Republic, are also banned in the country. 

Turkey also holds the record of submitting the highest number of requests to Twitter to delete content and close accounts – about 9000 of them. Twitter so far shut down 264 of them.

Thanks to similar requests, PayPal quit the country in 2016. A three-year-long ban of Wikipedia owing to the site’s refusal to to delete articles critical of the government, came to an end in January 2020 after a constitutional court ruling that found it a violation of freedom of expression.

The latest instances of social media blocking in the country have been as recent as in February 2020 when the Turkish military launched airstrikes in northern Syria.

As the threat looms above the social media platforms, Russian social media company VKontakte has been the only one to comply with the new law. 

The surveillance state

Attempts to stifle dissent is not new to Turkey. Even before the new law, the Turkish authorities have been detaining and prosecuting several thousands of social media users for their posts. 

The AKP has been in power in Turkey since 2002. It has been showing increasing contempt for the rights and liberties of citizens, after an initial flurry of a few liberalizing reforms. A 2016 coup attempt further catapulted its crackdown on dissent. Constitutional changes in 2017 granted sweeping powers to the President. 

Now, with the new law in place, social media platforms with more than one million daily users must respond within 48 hours of content removal requests from Turkish justice system. They must comply with the local tax codes. 

The official version, however, is different. It says the bill was passed after an incident in which President Erdogan’s daughter faced cyberbullying and harassment. According to the pro-government media, Erdogan himself has been subject to ridicule and offensive comments on social media. Engin Ozkoc, a member of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party has filed a case at Constitutional Court. Ozkoc is challenging the new law and proceedings are expected to begin soon.

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