As many people live in Turkey who are following the agenda, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey has approved the following code. “Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and similar platforms that are based out of Turkey and have more than 1 million  daily interaction  must have at least one representative after 1 October 2020.” The reason for this code’s rise is that the internet using individuals challenges them to reach the authorities of these social media problems and shall be able to communicate.

 

Many individuals have started to express their hesitation about the possible freedom of expression violations and censorship after this legal regulation’s approval in the Grand National Assembly. For now, this new code only will affect the social media platforms that did not assign a representative and the restrictions will be affecting the speed of the websites and applications. But new legal code does not end here.

What are the aspects of the new social media code?

According to the new regulation, social media platforms that have over one million users per day must have a representative in Turkey. Also, the information of the people who are based in Turkey must be preserved in Turkey. It is known that the speed reduction penalty will be applied, however, it is not certain yet what kind of restrictions will be applied for the other articles. People who assault others, spread fake news and cause misinformation among people or a person who threatens another can be punished from now on. Even though the  fine is not

certain yet, social media platforms who do not comply with the new regulations may face fines between 5 and 10 million Turkish Liras.

With this code, new regulations are created for people who use social media platforms on their mobile phones. Users will now be tracked via their IP addresses and will be inspected through the  PORT system. Thus, users who use the internet through the same IP addresses may be followed separately

Personal data will be shared from now on.

According to the new legal codes, people who have accounts in social media platforms will be approachable for the public institutions which ask for access and the social media companies will have the obligation to share the required  information. Twitter, which is a social media platform known for protecting users’ privacy, will have to share information with the government authorities especially for the access banned contents and contents with an initiated legal action.

Social media platforms that are resisting to share data may face fines.  Also, some articles of this regulation allow people who pressed charges against someone to also press charges for the platforms that do not share data.

We should also emphasize the fact that these posts not only cover personal assaults but also criticism posts. To give an example; let’s say you shared a post containing political criticism on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and your post is restricted with a verdict.  But the social media platform decided not to remove your post due to freedom expression rights. For cases like this, even though your data is inaccessible, a suit against the platform  may be filed.