New social media law is in Turkish Parliament

The AKP and MHP have submitted the proposal for the law, which is publicly known as the ‘social media law’, to the speaker of the parliament. The law paves the way for sanctions related to shares decided by the court as ‘targeting disinformation purposes via false information’.

With the proposal, news sites are being included in periodicals. Thus, news sites will also be able to benefit from the ads.

Speaking to media about the law, an expert stated that under the new law, a news story that the government did not verify could be considered as fake news.

The expert, who saw this move by the government as a preparation for the elections, said: “It seems that the main purpose of this type of regulation is plan to silence, intimidate social media users, force news sites and members of the press to self-censor, and reduce critical and opposing opinion.”