ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Turkey hit advertising bans on Twitter, Periscope and Pinterest on Tuesday for violating a controversial new law requiring social media platforms to appoint legal representatives to the country.
The law – which human rights and media freedom groups say is tantamount to censorship – requires social media companies with more than a million users to maintain representatives in Turkey to deal with content complaints on their platforms.
Companies that refuse to appoint an official representative are subject to fines, followed by advertising bans, and may face bandwidth reductions that would make their platforms too slow to use. The ban is the sale of online advertising space, from which many social media companies earn their money.
Facebook avoided banning advertising after announcing on Monday that it has begun the process of assigning a legal entity in Turkey, joining LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Dailymotion and the Russian social networking site VKontakte, which have agreed to set up legal entities. in Turkey.
“We hope that Twitter and Pinterest, which have not yet announced their representatives, will take the necessary steps quickly,” said Omer Fatih Sayan, deputy minister responsible for communications and infrastructure, after the advertising bans for Twitter, is the live video streaming application. , Periscope and on the image sharing network, Pinterest, were announced in the Official Gazette of Turkey.
Sayan added: “It is our last wish to impose bandwidth reductions for social networks that insist on not complying with their obligations.”
Twitter said in an email to The Associated Press that it had no comment on Turkey’s move. There was no immediate response from Pinterest.
Under the law, which came into force in October, the local representative of social media companies was tasked with responding to individual requests for the removal of content that violates privacy and personal rights within 48 hours or providing reasons for rejection. The company will be held liable for damages if the content is not removed or blocked within 24 hours.
The law also requires the storage of data from social networks in Turkey, raising concerns in a country where the government has experience of restricting freedom of expression.
The government insists that legislation is needed to fight cybercrime and protect the rights of Turkish social users.
Rights groups say the decision by international technology companies to bow to Turkish pressure and appoint representatives would lead to censorship and violations of the right to privacy and access to information in a country where independent media is severely curtailed. The Freedom of Expression Association says more than 450,000 domains and 42,000 tweets have been blocked in Turkey since October.
Facebook said Monday it was committed to maintaining free speech and other human rights in Turkey.
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Associated Press writer Kelvin Chan from London contributed.