The Bill on Amending the Law on the Regulation of Publications Made on the Internet and Combating Crimes Committed through These Publications was accepted by the Justice Commission of the Turkish Grand National Assembly.
With the bill containing regulations on social media, signed by AK Party Group Deputy Chairman Özlem Zengin, MHP Group Deputy Chairman Erkan Akçay and Muhammed Levent Bülbül, and some AK Party and MHP MPs, it is necessary to deal with social network providers to overcome the difficulties experienced in personal applications of internet users or notifications of public institutions. The aim is to establish a relationship.
With the proposal, a new definition of “social network provider” is introduced into the Law on Regulation of Publications Made on the Internet and Combating Crimes Committed through These Publications.
In this context, real or legal entities that enable users to create, display or share content such as text, image, sound and location for social interaction on the internet will be defined as social network providers.
Administrative fines may be notified directly to the addressee by the Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) if the addressee is abroad, via e-mail or other communication tools, through information obtained through communication tools on the internet pages, domain name, IP address and similar sources.
This notification will be deemed to be a notification made in accordance with the Notification Law. Notification will be deemed to have been made at the end of the 5th day following the date of this notification.
With the proposal, the administrative fines to be imposed on hosting providers who do not fulfill their obligations will be increased to provide deterrence. In this context, the administrative fine that can be imposed from 10 thousand lira to 100 thousand lira for the hosting provider who does not notify the hosting provider or does not fulfill its obligations will be increased from 1 million lira to 10 million lira.
With the regulation, in cases where it is possible to remove partial content that constitutes a crime, the freedom of expression and information will be further secured in terms of content on the same website that does not constitute a crime, by providing the opportunity to decide to remove the content instead of blocking access.
Since decisions to remove content can be made by content and hosting providers, not by access providers, these decisions will be notified to the content and hosting providers and they will be asked to comply.
Effective protection for personal rights
In case of violation of personal rights, a decision to remove the content may be made in accordance with the provision of the Law on the Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Combating Crimes Committed through These Publications, which regulates the decision to block access.
The decision to remove content or block access sent by the Association of Access Providers to the relevant content and hosting providers and access provider will be fulfilled by the relevant content and hosting providers and access provider within 4 hours at the latest.
If requested by those whose personal rights have been violated due to the content published on the internet, the judge may decide not to associate the applicant’s name with the internet addresses subject to the violation. The decision will also include which search engines will be notified by the Access Providers Association.
Thus, more effective protection of personal rights will be ensured by ensuring that search engines do not associate the applicant’s name with the content subject to the violation.
New legal obligations
According to the proposal, a foreign social network provider with more than 1 million daily access from Turkey will designate at least 1 person as a representative in Turkey. This person’s contact information will be included on the website in a way that is easily visible and directly accessible.
The social network provider will report this person’s identity and contact information to BTK. If the representative is a real person, it will be mandatory for him to be a Turkish citizen.
The social network provider that does not fulfill its obligation to determine and notify a representative will be notified by BTK. If this obligation is not fulfilled within 30 days from the notification, an administrative fine of 10 million lira will be imposed on the social network provider by the BTK President.
If this obligation is not fulfilled within 30 days from the notification of the administrative fine, an additional administrative fine of 30 million lira will be imposed.
Ad ban and throttling of internet bandwidth
If this obligation is not fulfilled within 30 days from the notification of the second administrative fine, BTK President will prohibit real and legal persons who are taxpayers resident in Turkey from placing new advertisements on the relevant social network provider. In this context, a new contract cannot be established and no money transfers can be made regarding this.
Within 3 months from the date of the advertising ban decision, this obliged person
If the requirement is not fulfilled, BTK President may apply to the criminal judgeship of peace to reduce the internet traffic bandwidth of the social network provider by 50 percent.
If the obligation in question is not fulfilled within 30 days from the implementation of the judge’s decision regarding the acceptance of the application, the BTK President may apply to the criminal judgeship of peace to restrict the social network provider’s internet traffic bandwidth by up to 90 percent.
In his decision upon the second application, the judge may determine a lower rate, taking into account the nature of the service provided, provided that it is not lower than 50 percent. BTK President may object to these decisions.
The decisions made by the judge will be sent to BTK to be notified to access providers. The requirements of the decisions will be fulfilled by the access providers immediately and within 4 hours after the notification.
If the obligation to appoint and notify a representative is fulfilled, one quarter of the administrative fines imposed will be collected, the advertising ban will be lifted and the judge’s decisions will automatically become null and void.
Access providers will be notified by BTK to end the intervention in internet traffic bandwidth.
Response obligation within 48 hours
The social network provider will be obliged to respond positively or negatively to applications made by people regarding content that requires “taking down the content and blocking access” or “blocking access to the content due to privacy reasons” within 48 hours at the latest from the application. Negative answers will be given with justification.
The social network provider will implement the decisions to remove or block access to the content notified to it. In addition, it will submit Turkish reports containing statistical and categorical information regarding applications for “removing content from publication and blocking access” and “blocking access to content due to privacy reasons” to BTK every 6 months.
The social network provider will take the necessary measures to host the data of users in Turkey in Turkey.
BTK President imposed an administrative fine of 5 million lira on the social network provider if it does not respond to the application for “removing the content from publication and blocking access” and “blocking access to the content due to privacy” within 48 hours, and 10 million lira if it does not implement the decisions to remove the content or block access. will be punished.
Administrative fines to be imposed on social network providers within the scope of “decision to block access and its execution” and “removal of content and/or blocking access in cases where delay is harmful” will be 1 million lira, “decision to block access and its execution” and “removal of content and denial of access” will be imposed as fines of 1 million liras. Judicial fines to be imposed within the scope of “obstruction” will be 50 thousand days. The penalties will be increased by one fold for each repetition of the violations in question within 1 year.
3-month period for social network providers
If the content determined to be unlawful by a judge or court decision is notified to the social network provider, the social network provider that does not remove the content or prevent access within 24 hours despite the notification will be responsible for compensation for the damages incurred. In order to enforce this legal liability, there will be no requirement to hold the content provider responsible or file a lawsuit against the content provider.
In the implementation of this regulation, the social network provider’s obligations will not eliminate its responsibilities and liabilities arising from being a content or hosting provider.
Social network providers will complete the necessary work within 3 months to fulfill their obligations within the scope of responding to applications for “removing content from publication and blocking access” and “blocking access to content due to privacy reasons” within 48 hours.
Social network providers will also notify BTK in January 2021 and publish their first reports on the website in accordance with the application for “removal of content from publication and blocking of access” and “blocking of access to content due to privacy reasons”.
