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Social media has significantly expanded individuals’ ability to express their opinions, access information, and participate in public debate. However, this expansion has also created new areas of infringement with respect to individuals’ honor and reputation, private life, visual data, personal data, and social standing. Under Turkish law, the violation of personal rights through social media posts is not resolved through a single legal norm; rather, it is assessed through the combined application of the Constitution, the Turkish Civil Code, the Turkish Code of Obligations, the Turkish Penal Code, Law No. 5651, and Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data. While Article 20 of the Constitution guarantees the protection of private life and personal data, Article 26 safeguards freedom of expression and dissemination of thought. Therefore, the core issue in social media disputes is the establishment of a fair balance between freedom of expression and personal rights.
In Turkish private law, the general protection regime for personal rights is mainly regulated under Articles 24 and 25 of the Turkish Civil Code. Pursuant to Article 24, a person whose personal rights have been unlawfully violated may request protection from the judge; unless there is consent of the person concerned, a superior private or public interest, or the exercise of an authority granted by law, the interference is deemed unlawful. This provision directly applies to defamatory social media posts, degrading accusations, manipulative use of visuals, disclosure-type statements, and the sharing of a person’s photographs or videos without consent. Under Article 25 of the Turkish Civil Code, protective remedies such as the prevention or cessation of the violation, the determination of unlawfulness, and the publication of the court decision may also be requested.
Where a violation of personal rights occurs through social media, one of the most significant consequences under private law is non-pecuniary damages. Article 58 of the Turkish Code of Obligations expressly provides that a person whose personal rights have been infringed may claim moral damages. The judge may rule not only on monetary compensation, but also on a decision condemning the infringement or ordering the publication of the judgment. Since social media posts can reach a very wide audience in a short time, leave a lasting digital trace, and often continue to have an impact through search engines, screenshots, or reposts, the resulting moral harm may be more severe than in traditional face-to-face violations. For this reason, courts assess the scope of the infringement, the reach of the post, the severity of the expressions used, and the impact on the victim together.
In some cases, social media posts may constitute not only a private law violation but also a criminal offense. In particular, posts attacking a person’s honor and dignity may amount to the offense of insult; the disclosure of images, audio, or information relating to private life may constitute the violation of privacy; and the unlawful dissemination of personal data may trigger offenses concerning personal data. In this context, Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code regulates the offense of insult, Article 134 regulates the violation of privacy, and Article 136 regulates the unlawful transfer or acquisition of personal data. The unauthorized sharing on social media of a person’s private conversations, intimate photographs, health data, telephone number, or similar personal data may, depending on the nature of the case, give rise to the simultaneous application of multiple criminal provisions.
One of the most important internet-specific mechanisms in personal rights violations is Law No. 5651. This Law regulates measures such as content removal and blocking access in cases of rights violations arising from internet publications. The provisions of Law No. 5651 concerning the protection of personal rights allow the victim to apply first to the content provider or hosting provider and, if no result is obtained, to apply to the criminal peace judgeship. The purpose of this regulation is to stop the growing damage quickly, especially where waiting for the outcome of a full trial would cause further harm. This remedy is particularly important in practice in cases involving disclosure-type visuals, reputation-damaging accusations, or clearly false criminal allegations. At the same time, the Constitutional Court has subjected certain provisions of Law No. 5651 to constitutional review in light of freedom of expression and freedom of the press, and in its decision dated 11 October 2023 annulled certain rules. This demonstrates the need for a more sensitive balance between the protection of personal rights and freedom of expression.
The law on the protection of personal data is also of great importance in social media-related violations. The purpose of Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data is to safeguard, above all, the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals, especially the right to privacy. A person’s photograph, video, name and surname, contact information, health data, location data, or various elements associated with that person’s social media account may all qualify as personal data. Under Article 11 of the Law, the data subject has the right to learn whether their personal data is being processed, to request its deletion or destruction, and to seek compensation for damage arising from unlawful processing. Indeed, in certain decisions of the Personal Data Protection Board, the publication of a person’s photographs on a data controller’s social media account without explicit consent has been deemed unlawful, and the removal of such visuals has been ordered. Therefore, a social media post cannot always be regarded merely as an act of expression; at times, it may also constitute a data processing activity.
The real difficulty under Turkish law arises from the fact that not every harsh, disturbing, or critical social media post amounts to a violation of personal rights. The Constitutional Court emphasizes that freedom of expression is of fundamental importance in disputes arising in the context of social media. Statements contributing to public debate, particularly those directed at persons or institutions exercising public power or having a high degree of public visibility, may enjoy broader protection. In contrast, posts that are solely intended to humiliate, contain serious allegations lacking any factual basis, disclose a person’s private sphere, or unlawfully disseminate their personal data are not protected by freedom of expression. The Constitutional Court’s case law concerning compensation or criminal sanctions imposed due to social media posts also shows that lower courts must carefully assess the context of the specific case, the meaning of the words used, the public interest dimension of the debate, and the proportionality of the interference.
In practice, a person whose personal rights have been violated through social media may pursue multiple legal avenues simultaneously. First, platform-based notification mechanisms and the remedies provided under Law No. 5651 may be used to seek the removal of the infringing post. Second, under Articles 24 and 25 of the Turkish Civil Code, claims may be brought for the cessation or prevention of the violation or for a determination of unlawfulness. Third, an action for non-pecuniary damages may be filed under Article 58 of the Turkish Code of Obligations. If the post constitutes a criminal offense, a criminal complaint may also be submitted. Finally, where the post also amounts to a personal data violation, an application may be made to the data controller, followed by a complaint to the Personal Data Protection Board. This multi-layered structure demonstrates that social media violations are not merely an “internet issue”; rather, they constitute a complex legal field that must be addressed simultaneously within the frameworks of personal rights, privacy, data protection, and freedom of expression.
In conclusion, under Turkish law, violations of personal rights through social media posts produce more intense effects than classical forms of infringement due to their speed, widespread reach, and permanence. At the legislative level, the Turkish Civil Code, the Turkish Code of Obligations, the Turkish Penal Code, Law No. 5651, and the Law on the Protection of Personal Data together establish a network of protection. However, in applying this protection, it is also a constitutional necessity to avoid unnecessarily suppressing freedom of expression. Therefore, the correct approach is a balanced legal analysis that evaluates together the content and context of the social media post, the status of the person targeted, the severity of the expressions used, the existence of public interest, and the concrete impact of the infringement on the victim. The current direction of Turkish law is neither to embrace unlimited freedom of expression nor unlimited protection of personal rights; rather, it seeks a case-specific balance based on proportionality.
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