Turkey has banned Turkish citizens and companies from placing ads on Twitter, after the social media giant failed to obey a new law and appoint an official representative.
Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority, BTK, on Friday banned Turkish citizens and companies from placings advertisements on Twitter after the social media giant failed to obey a new digital law and appoint an official representative.
“It has been decided to prohibit the placing of new advertisements by natural and legal persons on X Corp. (Twitter) formerly known as Twitter, Inc, which failed to fulfil its obligation to designate … representatives,” the BTK wrote in its decision published in the Official Gazette.
Turkey’s new digital law, adopted in 2022, was widely condemned by rights groups, experts and the opposition, which said it would increase government control and censorship on social media platforms.
Any persons or companies who place advertisements on Twitter will now be fined.
The new law requires social media companies to appoint official representatives in Turkey who will be responsible for handling government demands and notifications, such as for content removal.
If Twitter continues to fail to appoint a representative in Turkey, the next step will be halving the bandwidth for Twitter, according to the law.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has passed a number of draconian laws and regulations concerning social media, digital rights and internet freedoms in recent years.