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| Turkey enforces a ban on ads on Twitter |
According to the decision announced Tuesday, Ankara has banned ads on Twitter, Periscope and Pinterest after failing to appoint a local Turkish legal representative under the new social media law.
As per the law, social media companies that do not employ such agents are subject to a number of penalties, including a recent decision by the Turkish Information and Communication Technology Authority (BTK).
The law allows Turkish authorities to remove content from the platform instead of blocking access as in the past.
The latest ruling, which was published in the country's official gazette, reads as follows: The advertising ban went into effect on Tuesday.
Omar Fateh Sayan, Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure and Head of the Information and Communication Technology Department (Umar Fateh Sayan) said: Twitter and Pinterest's bandwidth decreased by 50% in April and 90% in May.
Twitter announced last month that it would shut down its Periscope app until March due to a drop in usage.
Saiyanan said: We are determined to take all necessary steps to protect our country's data, privacy and rights. We will never tolerate digital fascism and ignorance of Turkish rules. Instead, we have to respond to the tough comments made by the president (Recep Tayyip Erdogan).
“We hope Twitter and Pinterest can take the necessary steps to recruit local legal representatives quickly,” said Sayan.
Facebook announced, on Monday, that it has identified legal entities in Turkey and joined the platforms LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Dailymotion and VKontakte, which have agreed to establish legal entities in Turkey.
Google's YouTube platform announced a month ago that it was complying with the new law, and Ankara said it had tightened domestic controls on foreign companies.
In the past few months, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been fined 40 million Turkish lira ($ 5.35 million) for breaking the rules.
Companies that do not adhere to the law will face the low bandwidth issue, which makes the use of the platform very slow.
Last week, Erdogan said: The people who control the data can create a digital dictatorship by ignoring democracy, justice, rights, freedom and the promise to defend what he calls the country's cyber home.
The Turkish Information and Communication Technology Authority (BTK), the Banking Authority (BDDK), the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) and the VDK oversee the ad blocking.