Legal basis for bandwidth throttling turns out to be SoE statutory decree

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Lawyer Faruk Çayır, Alternative Informatics Association (Alternatif Bilişim Derneği) chair, submitted a written question to the Presidency Communication Center (CİMER) about the legal basis of the bandwidth throttling applied throughout Türkiye following the Taksim explosion that killed 6 people earlier this month.

The response, given by the Information Technologies and Communication Institution (BTK) revealed that the legal provision on which bandwidth throttling was based was one enacted with the decree-law number 671 issued on August 15, 2016 following the coup attempt of 2016.

The response by BTK says, "Necessary measures were taken in the scope of article 60 of the Law on Electronic Communication number 5809 and these measures have been approved by the judge."

The article referred to in the response was introduced with the decree-law number 671 issued on August 15, 2016.

Article 60 of the Law gives the Presidency the authority to determine measures to be taken to limit the freedom of communication, regulated in Article 22 of the Constitution, based on one or more of the reasons listed again in Article 22, in order to prevent communication or to invade privacy of communication.

The Presidency communicates these measures to BTK, which in turn should communicate the same to the operators, access providers, data centers and related content and hosting providers, who should implement them within at most two hours.

The decision is submitted to the approval of the judge within 24 hours who shall announce a judgment within 48 hours, or else the decision ceases to have effect. (HA/PE/VK)