Turkey has banned commercial advertising on Twitter and two other digital platforms in the country. The move was taken by the Turkish government as punishment after the social network failed to appoint local representatives. Periscope, which is owned by Twitter, and Pinterest They also did not make the appointment and suffered the same penalty.

A Turkish law targeting social media requires companies to appoint representatives in the country. It appears that the requirement is intended to give the local government greater power to interfere with the platforms. Social media companies that fail to comply with this requirement may face penalties, including fines and bandwidth restrictions.

Routine pressure on social media and media outlets

Twitter, before having its ads banned, had already been fined months ago in Turkey, alongside Facebook and YouTube. The current decision can be considered yet another extreme move by the local government towards social media.

One of the latest events in this regard was the closure of a television station after severe attacks by government representatives against it. Olay TV has closed weeks after its debut in Turkey. According to the station's editor-in-chief, Suleyman Sarilar, the channel's largest shareholder decided to end the program amid intense pressure from the government. Cavit Caglar also claimed to have been bothered by Olay TV's news coverage, which ran counter to his political interests.

Google Drive access ban and social media blocking in Türkiye

This complicated situation has been going on for a few years. In 2016, people were prevented by the Turkish government accessing Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and GitHub over the course of an entire weekend. As a backdrop to this extremist attitude, data leaks that would prove that Erdogan's government was working with the country's main media outlets to ensure its permanence in power.

Soon after, in the same year, the Turkish government blocked citizens' access to content from Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube. The restrictions on websites were imposed by internet service providers. An operator linked to the Erdogan government was the first to start blocking them.

Turkish government also threatens to reduce bandwidth

In addition to recent events, Turkey's Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure posted on his official Twitter profile about the ruling banning ads on the social network. When posting about the decision published today in the country's Official Gazette, Omer Fatih Sayan even threatened companies that advertise on the platform. His posts also include attacks on social media.

Sayan, who is also chairman of Turkey's Information and Communications Technology Authority (BTK), has further threatened the platforms. One of the deputy minister's Twitter posts says that media bandwidth could be reduced by 50 percent in April and 90 percent in May.

https://twitter.com/ofatihsayan/status/1351301970422849540?s=20

Sayan echoes Erdogan and other right-wing extremists in Turkey, who are also aligned with the Turkish leader. They say social media acts as digital dictatorships, disregarding democracy, the law, rights and freedoms.

Facebook, Google and YouTube have committed to appointing local representatives in Turkey. This move by digital platforms to accept the terms imposed by the Turkish government worries Amnesty International. Milena Buyum, a Turkish activist for this organization that defends human rights around the world, stated that there is a serious risk that the platforms will become an instrument of state censorship.

Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. Reuters