5651 art.5/A: Obligation to appoint a Turkish representative for social media platforms with 10 million+ Turkish users.
Platforms in Scope
- Facebook, Instagram. (Meta)
- Twitter / localization
Consequences of Failure to Appointment
- Administrative fine (large amounts)
- Advertising ban
- Bandwidth throttling
- BTK audit
Twitter Example
- Turkey appointed a representative in 2022
- Serious sanctions were previously imposed
- Bandwidth throttling etc.
Constitutional Court/ECtHR Approach
The Constitutional Court adopts that the social media representation obligation must be "proportionate and reasonable" and cannot be interpreted as contrary to freedom of expression.
IT law lawyer is recommended.