Turkey: new sanctions against social networks
Turkish authorities are now banning advertising revenue from Twitter, Pinterest and Periscope.
REUTERS
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Turkey imposed, on Tuesday, a new series of heavy sanctions on several social networks - including Twitter - for non-compliance with a law that considerably strengthens the power of the authorities on these platforms.
The Information and Communication Technology Authority has banned these networks from advertising in Turkey.
Other sanctions will follow if these platforms refuse to comply with the authorities' demands.
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With our correspondent in Istanbul
,
Anne Andlauer
The bill is growing for Twitter, Pinterest and Periscope.
After having imposed two fines on them for a total of 40 million pounds - almost 4 and a half million euros at the current rate - the Turkish authorities now prohibit advertising, and therefore advertising revenue, to these three companies.
The reason is always the same: these giants of social networks refuse to appoint a legal representative in Turkey, as required by a law adopted at the end of July 2020.
The platforms, which are already closely watched by the government, believe that such a decision would subject them to censorship by political authorities.
Among other things, the designated representative would have the obligation to comply within 48 hours with requests for removal of content issued by the courts.
After initially resisting the authorities' injunctions, competitors such as Facebook, TikTok and YouTube had finally complied in recent weeks.
If they persist in their refusal, Twitter, Pinterest and Periscope will experience a reduction in their bandwidth of around 50% in April and 90% in May.
They would then become inaccessible in Turkey.
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