Turkey fines social media platforms for not opening an office in the country

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The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) has fined multiple social media platforms with a penalty of 30 million Turkish liras (3.8 million US dollars) each for their continued failure to hire local representatives.

As required by recent legislation, the fine was applied to platforms that are accessed over a million times per day in Turkey, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Periscope, Linkedin, Dailymotion and TikTok, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported, citing sources from the BTK.

According to a new social media law that came into effect as of October 1, such companies have to appoint a legal representative in Turkey.

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After the first 30-day period to appoint their representatives, authorities had fined social media platforms 10 million Turkish liras (~1.2 million dollars) last month.

After the second 30-day term, the penalty rose to 30 million Turkish liras (3.8 million US dollars).

If companies still do not comply with the requirement by 90 days, Turkish advertisers will be banned from their sites.

Three months after the advertising ban, authorities will be able to reduce the internet bandwidth of these platforms by 50 percent first and then 90 percent after another month of non-compliance.

If the social media giants appoint local representatives, 75 percent of the fine will be waived and their bandwidth restored.

So far, the only platform that complied with the law was Russia's VK.

What does the law say?

As part of the law, social media firms are obliged to answer requests from Turkey in Turkish. They must respond to requests on personal and privacy rights within 48 hours.

The representative to be appointed by the companies should be a citizen of Turkey or a legal entity based in Turkey.

The platforms are also required to publish semi-annual reports for showing request statistics on personal and privacy rights.

Social networks that do not remove illegal content within 24 hours despite a court verdict will be held responsible.

In addition, social media companies should take necessary measures to host Turkey-based users' data in Turkey. (VK)