New strict social media measures enter into force in Turkey

Turkey has rolled out strict new social media restrictions that force large social media platforms to open offices in the country or face penalties. The measures, which came into force on Thursday, also include penalties for the platforms if they fail to take down contentious posts. The legislation was passed by parliament in July with the backing of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and its ally ultra-nationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Under the new rules, platforms with more than one million daily users have to open commercial offices in Turkey to implement local court judgements in removing offending content within 48 hours. In case they do not comply, the companies may face restrictions on advertising, fines of up to 40 million Turkish liras (approximately $5m) and bandwidth restrictions of up to 90 percent, which would unstabilise and make it hard to access the platforms. Iain Levine, Facebook’s human rights officer, tweeted on September 28 that the new legislation “raises many concerns (about) human rights”. Emma Sinclair-Web, Turkey director of US-based Human Rights Watch, described the legislation as “draconian”, and called on social media giants not to comply with it. style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">