News and developments
Law Proposal Amending the Press Law and Further Laws Has Been Published
On May 27, 2022, the Law Proposal Amending the Press Law and Further Laws (“Draft”) has been published on Grand National Assembly of Turkey’s (TBMM) website, which includes significant amendments to various laws. The Draft is currently submitted before the relevant commissions (i.e. Justice Commission and Digital Platforms Commission) for discussions, and it is one of the agenda items of the Digital Platforms Commission’s meeting of June 1, 2022. The Draft is anticipated to be published within the second quarter of 2022.
The Draft includes significant amendments in terms of (i) Press Law (e.g. including online news websites within the scope of the Press Law along with the printing and publication of printed works), (ii) Turkish Criminal Code (by introducing a new crime titled Public Dissemination of Misleading Information), (iii) Electronic Communications Law (by introducing the concept of Over the Top – OTT – services for the first time) and finally (iv) the Law No. 5651 (also known as the Internet Law), by introducing several significant obligations and liabilities on social network providers.
Below is an overview of the most crucial amendments that would have an impact on social network providers:
- Representative: According to the Draft, real person representatives of foreign social network providers (“SNPs”) with daily access of more than 1 million, must be Turkish citizens and residing in Turkey. Therefore, in terms of real person representatives, the obligation to reside in Turkey has been introduced.
- Reporting Obligations: Draft states that SNPs should include information on title tags, algorithms regarding the contents that are put forward or that are reduced, advertisement and transparency policies in their reports. SNPs should also include the measures taken to ensure equality and impartiality against the users, and to enable users to update their preferences regarding the contents suggested to them and options for limiting data privacy options, by also adding measures regarding therein within the report. SNPs should also provide the information requested by ICTA. SNPs are also required to take necessary measures in their own systems, mechanisms and practices in cooperation with ICTA in order to prevent contents and title tags pertaining to crimes under the Law No. 5651.
- Information Requests and Audit: The Draft requires the representative of the SNPs to provide the information which is requested by the public prosecutor and courts for the identification of the potential perpetrators of the following crimes under the Turkish Criminal Code: sexual harassment of children, public dissemination of misleading information, damaging the government’s union and integrity, crimes against the Constitution, crimes against government secrets and spying. If such obligation is not fulfilled, the relevant public prosecutor might apply to Ankara Criminal Judgeships of Peace to request reducing the internet bandwidth of the relevant SNP at the rate of 90%.
- Increased Sanctions: Draft authorizes the President of ICTA (“President”) to decide on advertisement ban decision for up to six (6) months, for the Turkish taxpayers, if the content removal/access ban decisions granted by the President are not enforced by the SNPs, in addition to the administrative sanctions regulated under Articles 8 and 8/A of the Law No. 5651. The President might also apply to the criminal judgeships of peace to request bandwidth throttling at the rate of 50%, and request bandwidth throttling at the rate of 90% in case the throttling decision is not enforced within thirty (30) days following the notification.
- Liability and Notification: Draft holds SNPs liable for the third party contents which constitute crimes, if it is obvious that the SNP aims users’ access to the relevant contents through title tags or distinguishing (e.g. promoting) methods. Besides, the Draft requires SNPs to report the content provider’s information to legal enforcement authorities for the contents which constitute danger to the safety of life and property and in non-delayable cases.