Twitter to send legal envoy to Turkey in compliance with new Internet law

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok were each fined about $5.1 million for not appointing their representatives last year.

By ZACHARY KEYSER, REUTERS
People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken September 27, 2013. (photo credit: REUTERS/KACPER PEMPEL)
People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken September 27, 2013.
(photo credit: REUTERS/KACPER PEMPEL)
Twitter will be deploying a legal representative to Turkey in compliance with the country's recently passed Internet law, which holds social media providers liable in some situations for the content posted on their platforms, the Verge reported.
The law was backed by President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party and its nationalist allies to make foreign social media sites more accountable. It requires them to appoint a local representative to address the concerns of the authorities.
Companies that refuse to comply with the new law could have their bandwidth slashed by up to 90%, essentially blocking access, and face other penalties.
According to the Verge report, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok were each fined somewhere in the ballpark of $5.1 million for not appointing their representatives last year.
A number of the companies also had their advertising blocked, including Twitter, with Turkish authorities citing the new law for cause.
Turkey was second globally in Twitter-related court orders in the first six months of 2019, according to the company, and it had the highest number of other legal demands from the social media giant.
“We remain committed to protecting the voices and data of people in Turkey who use Twitter. We will continue to be transparent about how we handle requests from government and law enforcement,” the company said in a statement, according to the Verge.
The new legislation, Internet Law 5651 passed in July 2020, allows Turkish authorities to remove content from platforms rather than blocking access as they have done in the past.
Social media providers must also store local users’ information in Turkey, raising concerns that a state that critics say has grown more authoritarian under Erdogan will gain easy access.
An estimated 90% of major media outlets in Turkey come under the ownership of the state or are close to the government.
Turks are already heavily policed on social media and the new regulations, especially if user data is vulnerable, will have a “chilling effect”, said Yaman Akdeniz, cyber rights expert and professor at Istanbul Bilgi University.
Erdogan has criticized social media and said a rise of “immoral acts” online was due to a lack of regulation. His AK Party says the law will not lead to censorship and that it aims to protect personal rights and data.
Aside from social media, there is little if any press freedom in Turkey, which follows just behind China as one of the second most notorious jailers of journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
"Outlet shutdowns, takeovers by pro-government businesspeople and judicial hostility have effectively eradicated mainstream media" in Turkey, the CPJ said in its report.
In every case, charges of acting against the state are brought up against journalists operating in the country. The committee found that 37 journalists were sent to prison in 2020.
Amid the pandemic, their trials were also suspended for months, prolonging imprisonment for those in custody.


Related Tags
Twitter
censorship