The social media regulation presented to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) has been approved. The widely discussed draft law has now been finalized, and the TBMM issued an official statement. The Justice Commission reviewed the proposed legislation and approved new rules for social networks. The aim of the regulation is to prevent violations of personal rights, reduce insults and hate speech, and curb the moral degradation observed on social media platforms.
What Are the New Regulations for Social Media?
The law includes provisions designed to resolve problems reported by internet users and public institutions. Under the new rules, a social network provider can be a natural or legal person. Administrative fines may be imposed when personal rights are violated. Technical data on websites—such as contact forms, IP addresses, and domain names—will be used to enable official notifications to be sent to proven offenders. For the upcoming e-notification system, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) has stated that submitted notices will be considered official notifications. BTK also indicated that the notification process will be completed within five days.
The proposed law specifies that network providers who fail to comply with the rules will face administrative fines. Representatives who do not follow the requirements may be fined between 1 million and 10 million Turkish lira. Individuals whose privacy has been violated may request confidentiality through the courts. Sites responsible for those violations will not be cross-linked with each other. Search engines involved in the matter will be named as part of the process. Under this social media regulation, the requests of victims will be treated as primary claims. If the victim is not associated with the offending content, this measure will apply. Those located abroad whose personal rights are violated will be notified through BTK. In addition, every social network operating in the country must have at least one local representative; that representative will operate nationwide.
Advertising Bans and Bandwidth Restrictions
The regulation also includes rules on advertising bans and bandwidth limitations. Every representative must publish their contact information on the platform. The social network provider must also submit the representative’s contact and identity details to BTK. While legal entities need not be Turkish citizens, foreign natural persons cannot serve as representatives.
Platforms that fail to notify BTK of their appointed representative within 30 days will receive a warning. Those that ignore the warning will be fined 10 million TL. If the fined platform does not pay, the fine will be tripled to 30 million TL.
If a second fine is not paid within one month, an advertising ban will be enforced. This ban will block advertising contracts and important financial transactions. Continued noncompliance may also lead to a court request to reduce the platform’s bandwidth by 50%. If noncompliance persists after that measure, bandwidth can be reduced by up to 90%.
Platforms that are fined but then comply with the rules will be given relief: three-quarters of the imposed fines will be waived, and the advertising ban and other imposed measures will be lifted. Platforms that fail to respond to users’ removal requests within two days will face a 5 million TL fine. Platforms that are notified to remove or restrict access to content and fail to comply will be fined 10 million TL.
Content that a judge or court determines to be unlawful must be acted upon within 24 hours; platforms that fail to apply the required measures may be held liable for material damages. In such cases, it is not necessary to file a separate lawsuit against the content provider.
Social network providers are required to respond to removal or access-restriction requests within 48 hours. When a request is denied, the person who filed it must be given an explanation for the rejection.