Turkey: Social media law’s passage raises censorship worries

guest · Jul 31, 2020

Turkey: Social media law’s passage raises censorship worries
July 28, 2020
https://apnews.com/9abc40bdd22f6c8df763bad0b4c55924

Turkey’s parliament approved a law early Wednesday that gives authorities greater power to regulate social media despite concerns of growing censorship in a country where critical voices are already muted.

The law requires social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter to maintain representatives in Turkey to deal with complaints about content on their platforms. Companies refusing to designate an official representative could be subject to fines, advertising bans and bandwidth reductions that would make their networks too slow to use.
Most alarming to the Turkish government’s critics, the nine-article legislation also would require social media providers to store user data in Turkey.
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The government says the legislation was needed to combat cybercrime and to protect users of social media.
Lawmakers against the measure termed it a “censorship law” that would further limit freedom of expression in Turkey.

The company would be held liable for damages if the content is not removed or blocked within 24 hours.
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The storage of user information raises concerns about more than privacy, critics of the legislation said.
In Turkey, 54 million of the country’s 83 million people identify as active social media users.

“So what do you do? You automatically self-censor. And that’s the worst: A person not being able to freely share his or her thoughts, to censor one’s self,” Calis said
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guest · Jul 31, 2020

Turkey's New Internet Law Is the Worst Version of Germany's NetzDG Yet
July 30, 2020
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/turkeys-new-internet-law-worst-version-germanys-netzdg-yet

For years, free speech and press freedoms have been under attack in Turkey. The country has the distinction of being the world’s largest jailer of journalists and has in recent years been cracking down on online speech.

Now, a new law, passed by the Turkish Parliament on the 29th of July, introduces sweeping new powers and takes the country another giant step towards further censoring speech online. The law was ushered through parliament quickly and without allowing for opposition or stakeholder inputs and aims for complete control over social media platforms and the speech they host.
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[...] the law would mandate social media platforms with more than a million daily users to appoint a local representative in Turkey, which activists are concerned will enable the government to conduct even more censorship and surveillance. Failure to do so could result in advertisement bans, steep penalty fees, and, most troublingly, bandwidth reductions.

When introducing the new law, Turkish lawmakers explicitly referred to the controversial German NetzDG law and a similar initiative in France as a positive example.
Even worse than NetzDG
But the fact that the Turkish law goes even beyond NetzDG highlights the danger of exporting Germany’s flawed law internationally.
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guest · Dec 17, 2020

YouTube agrees to comply with amended Internet Law in Turkey
December 17, 2020
https://www.neowin.net/news/youtube-agrees-to-comply-with-amended-internet-law-in-turkey

YouTube has had a troublesome history with Turkey in the past decade or so. Since 2007, the website has been banned and unbanned multiple times for various reasons. Recently, Turkey modified its Internet Law No. 5651 which among other things governs the content that will be removed from social media platforms. After analysis and validation, YouTube has agreed that it will comply with the amended law.

The modified law now requires social media platforms to appoint a legal entity who will be responsible for turnaround times on takedown requests from the Turkish government and will also publish transparency reports about the process twice a year as well.
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The company has emphasized that this modification to the Internet Law does not impact how the company reviews content removal requests, and that it will ensure that its own policies are followed as well.

[...] YouTube respects the laws and regulations in the countries where we operate, while maintaining our commitments to freedom of expression, access to information, and transparency. We have been able to find a way forward and will commence the process of appointing a local representative legal entity in compliance with the law, without compromising our values.
YouTube indicated that its Turkish users and content creators are important to the platform, and it will ensure that it maintains an open platform.
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YouTube: An Update on YouTube in Turkey

We remain committed to our Turkish users, creators and business partners, and will continue to preserve the platform’s vibrance and openness.
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