How to Read Turkey’s New Internet Law

A parliamentary commission approved an omnibus bill article that will allow Telecommunication Authorities (TIB) to restrict content in 4 hours upon complaints from Prime Minister’s Office or another related ministry. 

Kerem Altıparmak from Ankara University Law Faculty explained in detailed on how Turkey’s new internet law will affect users. Some of the highlights from Altıparmak’s comments are as follows:

Limitless powers to TIB

“From now on, TIB will be able to block anything with its unlimited judgment powers. There are hundreds of crimes defined in the book. The law doesn’t satisfy with this, it also added the protection of public order. And there is no authority to inspect this.

“For instance, think about the most trivial crime. If TIB wants, it can block content because of that. Since it includes public order, all organizations and gatherings will be considered within this.”

Who will see the court order?

“Thousands of rulings have been issued related to the Articles 9 and 9a. Peace Court judges can impose such decision without any further reasoning. Let’s say, a peace court judge in Ankara will say ‘This is wrong, does PM know about it?’ Who will see this ruling? Who will oversee this? There is a serious transparency problem here.”

Twitter can be blocked as well

“For instance, this law will make it possible to press bianet to remove content and bianet will be forced to remove such content. In the case that content owner is not reachable, residing out of the country or resisting, it will be possible to block the whole website. Twitter is one of them. In addition to that, if a site is resisting not to remove content related to Anti-Terror Act of Turkey, it will be possible to launch a prosecution.”

Not fine, but prison sentence 

“This article shows that they have really gone further. They are mentioning of fines between 3,000 and 10,000 liras but those who won’t pay will face prison. 10,000 liras is very expensive.”

“Law bolsters pressures”

“The government is obsessed with two things: Internet freedom and freedom to gather. There are suppressing both the two. But this law even bolsters pressures,” Altıparmak added as a last word.

What does the minister say?

Reminding the previous suspension of regulations by Constitutional Court; Minister of Transportation, Maritime and Communication Lütfi Elvan said that the new regulations were made departing from these revisions. 

“There is a gap in this matter right now. When we look at other countries, there are limitation everywhere regarding national security. In most cases, action can be taken without a court order but we seek a court order no matter what.

“When there will be an inappropriate message on the social, it will foremost be possible to remove only that message first.” (EA/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.