Turkey enforces ad ban on Twitter following non-compliance with social media law

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The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) has issued a decision prohibiting Twitter from accepting advertisements from individuals and businesses in Turkey.

The ban comes as Twitter failed to comply with the requirements of the Social Media Law, which mandates appointing a legal representative within the country and notifying the authorities about it every six months.

As per the decision published in the Official Gazette today, taxpayers in Turkey will no longer be able to place new advertisements on the platform. The BTK had previously imposed a similar ban on Twitter and its subsidiary Periscope on January 19, 2021. The ban was lifted on December 28, 2021, following Twitter's fulfillment of the required notification obligations.

The Social Media Law

The Social Media Law, enacted on October 1, 2020, imposes an obligation on social media providers with over one million users in Turkey to have a legal representative within the country. Failure to adhere to this requirement can result in progressive sanctions, including monetary fines, advertising bans, and bandwidth throttling for non-compliant platforms.

According to the law, the appointed representative must promptly respond to requests from the authorities within 48 hours and publish reports every six months regarding complaints. Failure to comply with these obligations incurs administrative fines of up to 5 million Turkish lira for non-response and 10 million Turkish liras for not providing the required reports.

If providers persist in non-compliance after the administrative fines, they face additional penalties of 30 million Turkish lira. Subsequently, these social media platforms may be subjected to advertising bans and bandwidth throttling penalties ranging from 50% to 90%. (HA/VK)