New law requiring social media companies to open an office in Turkey comes into force

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Several articles of the new "social media law," officially the Law on Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Suppression of Crimes Committed by Means of Such Publications, came into force today (October 1).

Accordingly, "social network providers" that have more than one million daily users are required to assign a representative in Turkey.

Whatsapp, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are the main companies that are affected by the law, which specifies a number of gradual sanctions, including monetary penalties, advert ban and bandwidth restrictions, on the companies who fail to comply with the orders.

The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) will notify the companies about their obligations. The companies will have to comply with the request within 48 hours of the notification.

The bill supported by the lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) was passed by the parliament on July 29.

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Also, the companies now have to release a report on their activities every six months. Those who don't respond to requests will be fined 5 million Turkish lira and those who fail to release the report will be fined 10 million lira (~1.3 million US dollars).

The companies that don't pay the fine within 30 days will have to pay an additional 30 million lira.

Also, the content providers that don't remove objectionable content despite court verdicts will be held responsible for the damage that may occur.

In the further stages, advert bans and bandwidth restrictions from 50 to 90 percent will be imposed on companies that don't comply with the law. (HA/VK)