You Can Fool Some Of The People Some Of The Time And You Can’t Cut Off Social Media

Michael Hedges October 5, 2020 - Follow on Twitter

Dictator fanboys delight in the upending of rule of law. After all, the dictator knows best and the fanboys take each and every strike against civil liberties as one more step to the glorious dark side. After targeting traditional news media - from jail and harassment to beatings - social media is the current target.

Last week (October 1) a new law in Turkey came into effect. The rules are far reaching. Any social media portal with more than a million daily users must have a “representative” in Turkey. Court orders to remove “offensive”
content must be observed within 48 hours by December 31st 2021 or face serious fines (more than €4 million), bandwidth restrictions or blocked access. On top of all that, advertising on the social media platforms not complying could be banned. The law passed Turkey’s parliament in July shortly after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan railed about “cleaning up” social media platforms. No more online insults, by golly.

Social media platform representatives participated - virtually - in a meeting explaining the details, reported Sabah (October 1). The law applies to “foreign-sourced” social media platforms. That includes Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, Periscope, Pinterest, LinkedIn, DailyMotion and VK. The required representative of each platform must be a Turkish citizen. If one is not appointed within 30 days a fine of TRY10 million, a bit more than €1 million, will be imposed. If that deadline passes fines and other sanctions ratchet up. Nearly all pro-government news outlets reported that the meeting took place. None reported responses from the social media platforms.

Turkish authorities argue that their new social media law is more or less the same as the German NetzDG law, which penalizes hate speech, incitement to violence and terrorist propaganda appearing on online platforms. The reality in Germany is quite different, noted Human Rights Watch/Turkey researcher Emma Sinclair-Webb, according to Deutsche Welle (October 4). In contrast to Turkey, in Germany there is a clear separation of powers and an independent judiciary, she added. During the summer a report from the German Foreign Ministry described Turkey's judiciary as largely dysfunctional and under political influence. The report added that freedom of speech was almost nonexistent.

In line with other authoritarian-controlled countries, social media platforms have effectively eclipsed traditional news sources, many tainted by strict government control. This has led regimes to pull out all the stops. "For many people who use social media to reach their news, social media is a lifeline, so this new law marks a new dark era of online censorship," noted Ms Sinclair-Webb. “We believe that these days it’s really impossible in a country like Turkey to suppress social media. It is so much a part of people’s lives,” she added, quoted by AFP (October 2). “The objective of the law is to threaten social media companies with a comply-or-die message.”

"May the Social Media Law be blessed with the approval of our President,” said Turkey’s Communications Director on social media, quoted by Hürriyet (October 1). “With this law, our country will be protected from smear campaigns and our citizens will be protected from attacks on personal rights. Our fight against terrorist organizations, reputation executioners and liars will continue.”

Turkey has the tenth most Facebook users in the world, about 56% of persons over 13 year, reported Bianet (July 2). In total, there are 54 million social media users in Turkey, just under two-thirds of the population. This government bluster might not go down well.

See also...

• Hot Topics - Media in Turkey

• Hot Topics - Social Media