Turkish Plan to Muzzle Social Media Delayed by Pandemic

Experts warn that the planned measures would have serious consequences for tech companies' activities, and may result in some leaving the country.

The draft law on social media has been sent to the business world and unions for consultation, but the opposition is sure it will come back to parliament soon.

"Erdogan's intention is to close down the social media with this draft law. They will try to bring the draft law [back to parliament] at the first possible chance," Garo Paylan, an MP from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party, HDP, told the media on Tuesday.

A day earlier, the director of the Turkish branch of Human Rights Watch, HRW, Emma Sinclair-Webb, wrote: "Not content with simply cracking down on individuals for critical social media posts, Erdogan's presidency is now intent on using the COVID-19 crisis as a pretext to exert direct control over social media platforms."

Emre Kursat Kaya, a security analyst with the Istanbul-based Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, EDAM, says times of pandemics are usually compared to wartime periods for a reason.

"People are pushed to make a choice between their individual freedoms and more security from public authorities. Most of the time, it is the latter that prevails. Not many questions are asked and debates around issues are mostly avoided as the crisis requires rapid responses," Kaya told BIRN.

New law creates long list of obligations:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, Turkey, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/STR

The draft law obliges foreign social media companies with high internet traffic to appoint an official representative in Turkey to answer authorities' demands concerning the content on their platforms.

Companies...