Dailymotion appoints representative to Turkey in line with draconian social media law

Duvar English 

French video sharing technology platform Dailymotion appointed a representative in Turkey in line with the country's draconian social media law. 

“One of the foreign-sourced social network provider Dailymotion with more than 1 million daily access from Turkey has appointed a representative in Turkey,” Deputy Transport and Infrastructure Minister Ömer Fatih Sayan said on Twitter on Jan. 9.

“We expect the same step as soon as possible from social networks that have not yet appointed representatives,” Sayan added.

On Jan. 8, Chinese-owned video sharing app TikTok agreed to appoint a formal representative in Turkey.

Turkey's new social media regulation went into effect on Oct. 1, 2020 amid intense criticism on censorship, bringing along a string of restrictions for social media companies, including the requirement to open offices in Turkey, and a halving of their bandwidth if they fail to comply.

The first fine was imposed on Nov. 4. The due date set for the companies with over 1 million daily access from Turkey to appoint representatives was on Nov. 2, but only Russian social media platform VK conveyed the name of its representative to the Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) at the time.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Periscope and TikTok were fined 10 million Turkish Liras each for not appointing representatives.

They were fined an additional 30 million liras each for still not appointing representatives on Dec. 3. YouTube then announced that it will open an office in Turkey.

The advertisement ban nears since they once again rejected to appoint representatives within 30 days. The ban will last for three months.

In case they insist on not appointing representatives within three months after the ban, the next step will be decreasing their bandwidth by 50 percent and it will further decrease by 90 percent if they don't abide, which means that access to them will practically be barred.

As part of the new legislation, social media firms must respond to requests by the Turkish government in Turkish and must answer requests concerning "personal and privacy rights" within 48 hours.

The platforms should also publish semi-annual reports on their response rates to such requests.

Social networks that do not comply with court orders to remove content are to be subject to penalties, according to the law. In addition, it also requires social media companies to take measures to host Turkey-based users’ data in the country.