Turkey passes law to control and censor social media content

The Turkish Parliament on Wednesday passed a controversial law giving the authorities greater control over social network users and allowing them to censor content. 

The amendment, promoted by the government's Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), was passed early this morning with the support of its parliamentary ally, the ultra-nationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). 

The regulation obliges social networking companies to appoint a representative and maintain their servers in Turkey. 

Companies must store user data in the Eurasian country and a deadline of 48 hours is set for removing content that authorities consider "offensive". 

If they fail to comply with their obligations they could face fines of between 1,500 and 1 million dollars.

The main opposition parties, as well as several human rights NGOs and journalists' associations, oppose the reform as "unconstitutional". They warn that the measure could lead to greater control and censorship of citizens. "These amendments would significantly increase the government’s powers to censor online content and prosecute social media users " Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International's spokesperson in Turkey, said in a statement. "This is a clear violation of the right to freedom of expression online and contravenes international human rights law and standards" he added.

During the parliamentary debate, thousands of users posted messages on Twitter under the label "stop the censorship law". 

The government argues that the law is necessary because technology companies have failed to take action against activities such as sexual harassment, illegal gambling, fraud and support for terrorism. The AKP had already warned that it intended to introduce legal measures to keep social networking giants like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube under control by forcing them to remove content or take on heavy fines. 

Between 2014 and 2019, the Turkish government has ordered the closure of some 27,000 social network accounts and about 246,000 websites, according to a study by the Turkish Bilgi University and the Freedom of Expression Association (IFOD). 

In January the digital encyclopaedia Wikipedia became accessible again from Turkey after almost three years of being banned after the Constitutional Court considered that the blockade violated the rights set out in the Magna Carta. 

Turkey ranks 154th out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index and has arrested dozens of journalists on generic charges of supporting terrorism, according to human rights NGOs.