Turkish parliament passed law to control the social media
New law gives sweeping powers to Turkish government over social media
Turkish parliament
has passed legislation on Wednesday, July 29 that would give the government
sweeping new powers to regulate social media content. There are serious
concerns that one of the few remaining spaces for free public debate in the
country could fall under greater government control.
Even without
the new bill, Turkey blocked access to more than 400,000 websites by the end of
2019, according to Mr. Akdeniz, whose organization, the Freedom of Expression
Association, compiles an annual report on internet access in the country.
According to
his analysis, last year more than 130,000 web addresses were blocked; 40,000
posts on Twitter taken down; 10,000 YouTube videos removed; and 6,200 Facebook
posts scrubbed from the site.
Turkey has
become increasingly authoritarian under President Erdogan. This law is another
sign of this authoritarian trend. President Erdogan has made no secret of his
disdain for social media and of his desire to exert control over digital
spaces, much in the same way his government has gained control over traditional
media.
The bill
orders social media platforms with over one million daily users — such as
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube — to open offices in Turkey and imposes stiff
penalties if the companies refuse, including slowing the bandwidth of the sites
and making them largely inaccessible.
The
companies would be responsible for responding to the demands of the government
and individuals to block or remove content hosted on their platforms that is
deemed offensive. They would have 48 hours to comply and could be fined more
than $700,000 if they fail to respond.
The new law,
which is expected to go into effect Oct. 1, also requires the social media
companies to store user data inside Turkey, raising privacy concerns.
President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his governing A.K.P. party were behind the
legislation, arguing that it was needed to protect citizens from cyber crime and
slander. Critics, however, say it is part of a broader effort to control the
flow of information in the country and stifle dissent.
“The new law
will enable the government to control social media, to get content removed at
will and to arbitrarily target individual users,” Tom Porteous, deputy program
director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement released hours before the
overnight vote. “Social media is a lifeline for many people who use it to
access news, so this law signals a new dark era of online censorship.”
The attempts
to gain control over social media in Turkey highlight the paradox the platforms
present in the digital age.
But they
have also proved to be an increasingly essential tool for debate and dialogue
in repressive and autocratic countries, one of the last arenas where opposition
figures can connect with the public, and citizens can attempt to hold
politicians to account.
More than 90
percent of Turkey’s conventional media is now controlled by conglomerates close
to the government. Hundreds of reporters have been jailed or fled the country
out of fear and Mr. Erdogan has made himself so omnipresent on TV and radio
that his voice can drown out all others. The internet is now, for many, the
last open public forum.
In 2016,
months before an attempted coup, Turkey moved even more aggressively to censor
content on the internet, as the number of people prosecuted for insulting Mr.
Erdogan in posts on social media skyrocketed. At the same time, internet trolls
loyal to the government used social media platforms to attack critics and
journalists.
In 2017, the
country shocked many international observers when it banned Wikipedia, a
restriction that was lifted only this year in January.
Khalid Bhatti
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