Turkey: The Recent Changes Brings A Trigger-Happy Approach To Removing And Restraining Access To Internet Content

An important legislation has been published in the Official Gazette dated 15.04.2015 numbered 29327. With the Law No. 6639 (an omnibus bill bringing changes to several other laws), the Internet Law received a major new provision. Below is a quick summary of the changes brought with this new provision:

An additional provision (Art. 8/A) to the Internet Law has been introduced. The new provision grants the Presidency of Telecommunication and Communication ("PTC") to directly remove and/or restrain access to the internet content in urgent circumstances.

Upon the request made by the courts (or the Prime Ministry in circumstances that cannot be delayed,) the PTC shall have the right to remove and/or restrain access to the internet content for one or more of the below purposes:

In addition, the relevant Ministries also have the right to make such a request to the PTC for (i) protection of national security and public order, (ii) prevention of crime, or (iii) protection of general health.

If the PTC decides to remove and/or restrict access to certain internet content, the decision will be sent directly to the access providers, content providers and hosting providers. The decision must be carried out immediately, and in any case within 4 hours of being notified of the decision.

The content removal and/or access restriction decision given by the PTC, with the request made by the Prime Ministry or the relevant Ministries, must be submitted by the PTC to the attention of the Criminal Judge of Peace within 24 hours from the date of the decision. The judge must announce his ruling within 48 hours from the submission of the decision. If the judge does not announce a ruling within this 48 hours, the PTC decision will cease automatically.

The content removal and/or access restriction decisions given under this article shall adopt measures to limit the removed and/or restricted content to the section or part that is violating the law (URL based restrictions, etc.). However, if this is not technically possible or the removal and/or restriction of this section or part does not resolve the violation, a decision that restricts access to the entire web site could be given.

The PTC must also file a criminal complaint against the person(s) who are responsible for the creation and the spreading of the unlawful content, to the Public Prosecutor's Office. Access providers, content providers and hosting providers are all obliged to provide the necessary information, to reach the perpetrators of these crimes, to the judicial authorities upon the request made by the judge. Access providers, content providers and hosting providers that fail to provide these information to the judicial authorities may face judicial fines.

The hosting providers, access providers and content providers that do not carry out the content removal and/or access restriction decisions given by the PTC may face judicial fines ranging between 50.000 Turkish Liras and 500.000 Turkish Liras.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.