Issued on: 29/07/2020 – 07:41
Turkey's parliament passed a law regulating social media on Wednesday, that critics said will increase censorship and help authorities silence dissent.
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President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party, which has a majority with an allied nationalist party, had backed the bill. The assembly began debating the new legislation on Tuesday, and its passage was announced by parliament on Twitter.
The law requires foreign social media sites to appoint Turkish-based representatives to address authorities' concerns over content and includes deadlines for removal of material they take exception to.
Companies could face fines, the blocking of advertisements or have bandwidth slashed by up to 90%, essentially blocking access, under the new regulations.
As a majority of Turkey's mainstream media has come under government control over the past decade, Turks have taken to social media and smaller online news outlets for critical voices and independent news.
Turks are already heavily policed on social media and many have been charged with insulting Erdogan or his ministers, or criticism related to foreign military incursions and the handling of the novel coronavirus.
Journalists in #Turkey already spend years behind bars for critical reporting & social media users tweet in fear.
Tmw, MPs will vote on a social media law that would increase the governments powers to censor online content & prosecute social media usershttps://t.co/LxmmdEct9C
— Stefan Simanowitz (@StefSimanowitz) July 28, 2020Read More – Source
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