Pinterest agrees to appoint legal representative in Turkey
Image: Pinterest
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In line with a new social media law in Turkey, image-sharing network Pinterest has agreed to appoint a local representative in the country, the deputy minister of transport and infrastructure minister, Ömer Fatih Sayan, has announced.
"Thus, there is no social network provider from abroad, whose daily reach is more than 1 million in our country, which has failed to notify that they will be appointing a representative in our country," Sayan said on Twitter.
With these developments, "the rights of Turkish citizens will be protected more efficiently," Sayan said, adding that all global social media companies now agrred to comply with new law.
Turkey's new social media law came into effect on October 1, 2020, obliging social media platforms accessed over 1 million times per day in the country to hire local representatives.
Last year, Turkey imposed a 40 million Turkish lira (5.43 million USD) fine each on several social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube for not complying with the law.
Facebook, VKontakte (VK), YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Dailymotion, and Twitter have decided to assign local representatives.
Rights groups have expressed concerns that the new law would facilitate arbitrary censorship and called on social media companies to refuse to abide by it.
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About the social media lawAccording to a new social media law that came into effect in Turkey as of October 1, 2020, social media platforms and companies such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Periscope, Linkedin, Dailymotion and TikTok have to appoint a legal representative in Turkey. After the first 30-day period to appoint their representatives, authorities fined social media platforms 10 million Turkish liras (~1.2 million dollars) in November After the second 30-day term, the penalty rose to 30 million Turkish liras. 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. 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. |
(HA/VK)