The government is expected to enact a new omnibus law soon as part of the fight against the coronavirus outbreak. The omnibus law, to which Sözcü Newspaper gave clues, also includes regulations regarding social media. According to the text of the Bill on Amendments to Certain Laws, which is expected to be brought to the agenda of the Turkish Grand National Assembly soon, new additions are being made to the Law No. 5651 on the Regulation of Publications Made on the Internet and Combating Crimes Committed through These Publications. The new additions are as follows:
SOCIAL NETWORK PROVIDER IS BEING DEFINED
Social networks, which allow people to create, view and share messages such as images, text, voice and location on the internet, are defined as “social network providers” with the article added to the law on real or legal persons.
INSPECTIONS CAN BE CONDUCTED IN BTK OFFICE
Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK) will be able to monitor whether social network providers fulfill their obligations. In this context, BTK will be able to conduct or have an investigation carried out at the crime scene (office). Chiefs and officers of law enforcement forces and other public institutions will also support these inspections.
THERE WILL BE AT LEAST 1 OFFICIAL IN TURKEY
Social networks of foreign origin, to which more than 1 million people log in from Turkey every day, are required to identify at least one authorized person in Turkey in order to send notices, notifications or requests made by BTK, judicial and administrative authorities, and to respond to applications made by people.
The social network provider will have the contact information of this authorized person on its website in an easily visible and directly accessible way. If there is no authority, BTK will apply to the criminal judgeship of peace to reduce the internet traffic bandwidth of the relevant social network provider by 59 percent.
If a representative is not determined within 30 days following the decision, the internet traffic bandwidth of the relevant social network provider will be reduced by 95 percent.
PEOPLE CAN ALSO REQUEST CONTENT REMOVAL
With the new regulation, people will also be able to apply to social providers for content removal. The relevant social network provider will be obliged to respond to applications made by people for content within 72 hours.
If the relevant provider does not respond, it will face a fine of 100 thousand lira to 1 million lira. The relevant social network provider will also be obliged to submit reports containing statistical and categorical information regarding the applications to BTK on a quarterly basis.
DATA WILL BE HOSTED IN TURKEY
The domestic or international social network provider, which is accessed by more than one million people daily from Turkey, will host the data of users in Turkey in Turkey. Administrative fines ranging from 1 million Turkish lira to 5 million Turkish lira will be imposed on social network providers that do not comply with this requirement.
IF THE CONTENT IS NOT REMOVED, YOU WILL BE FACED WITH COMPENSATION
In the event that content that has been determined to be unlawful by a judge or court decision is transmitted to the social network provider, the relevant social network provider will compensate for the damages incurred if it does not remove the content or prevent access to the content within 24 hours. In other words, if the content is not removed, not only the producer of the content but also the person who allowed it to be published and spread will be punished.
Stage Media
01-01-1970 02:00:00