The nine-article bill on social media drafted by AKP and MHP deputies and submitted to parliament was approved in the Parliamentary General Assembly and has become law. With the regulation that gained approval in the Parliamentary Justice Commission last week being deemed “censorship,” attention is also being drawn to its unconstitutionality.
Evrensel IT Columnist and member of the Social Information and Communication Association, İsmail Gökhan Bayram, said, recalling that the projected amendments to the censorship law number 5651 had been speedily brought onto the parliamentary agenda following a thirteen-hour Justice Commission session and had gained approval there following a sixteen-hour session, “Most of the deputies of the parties that are partners in government were outside the Parliamentary Chambers during the debate conducted so hastily on these amendments. They came in for the votes, voted and left.”
THE ATTITUDE OF “I KNOW BEST - EVERYONE KEEP THEIR NOSE OUT”
Saying, “No prior opinions on the amendments were obtained from stakeholders nor was heed paid to either the objections in the Commission or the objections in the General Assembly. It is clear that this attitude of ‘I know best - everyone keep their nose out’ is not a correct method for a statutory amendment on such a tricky issue that would be discussed for years in many countries before undertaking a statutory amendment,” Bayram noted that in approving the amendment the ruling party and its partner had made a fresh addition to the censorship tools they in any case make abundant use of so as to encompass social media.
Saying this amendment that was made had given social network providers a three-month preparatory period to patriate data and appoint representatives, Bayram said, “It would be fantasy to imagine social media companies are going to defend our freedom of speech and not appoint representatives independently of their own material and political profit-loss calculations. They may well fail to appoint representatives and cite freedom of speech in justification, but we must not lose sight of the fact even for a moment that this would be not be independent of protracted calculations.”
IS IT APPLICABLE IN PRACTICE?
Gökhan Bayram continued, “There is talk of these amendments made under 5651 being incapable of application in practice due to the inability to appoint representatives or legal loopholes, but such talk does not mean use of these amendments will not be attempted in various ways or they will not be patched up in another midnight session of parliament or made more serviceable under a Presidential Decree.”
“The practice of the AKP’s rule of eighteen years suggests that recourse may be made to such acts without the need even being felt to disguise them occasionally. Taking these new amendments in conjunction with issues surrounding judicial independence, it seemingly defies possibility – once more looking at the AKP’s practice – that ready recourse will not be made to them in acts classifiable as censorship.”
TALK OF THE END OF THE INTERNET
“However, there is no need to reach exaggerated conclusions such as “The internet has ended in Turkey” that were elicited when 5651 was brought out in 2017 and then when 5651 was revised in 2014. The internet did not come to an end in our country, either in 2007 or in 2014. Nor will it do so now. Just as the internet has not come to an end in countries like China where censorship is applied even more widely.”
“As things stand, censorship has been applied to newspapers by waving the Press Advertisement Agency stick and to internet broadcasting by waving the Radio and Television Supreme Council stick and to other cultural and artistic works through various institutions, while, to the internet, this was through the Information Technology and Communication Authority, from time to time also assuming the nature of self-censorship. The power holders now possess new social media-focused tools to roll out this censorship further and align data flows even closer with their wishes.”
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
“What needs to be done going forward is abundantly clear: making exhaustive use of all the internet’s capabilities to promote even more widely each element it is sought to censor in a manner that will thwart this attempt at censorship that is both awaiting social media and is actually being applied in other areas; to prove in practice that the endeavour to censor and disguise an event causes the event to become better and more widely known.”
“THEY ARE STRIVING FOR NOBODY TO QUESTION OR CRITICIZE”
Republican People’s Party (CHP) MP Ayhan Barut also reacted adversely to the statute. Noting there was an endeavour to silence all and all things that object to the single-man regime, Barut said, “The regulations in the statute aim to constrain channels of criticism of the power holders and can never be accepted. They should know that those who resist for freedoms will win.”
Barut commented, “There is an attempt to take our freedoms from us in our country under the single-man regime and silence all who think differently, criticise and oppose. There is virtually a wish in our beautiful country that has been turned into hell for nobody to question, criticize and speak to the power holders. All who object to this darkness are threatened with oppression, court cases and prisons and are flung behind bars. Turkey is constantly downgraded in freedom rankings and the prisons are full of journalists, too.”
#CallAHaltToTheCensorshipLaw
The social media law also created a great stir on Twitter.
Yaman Akdeniz: As expected, the Social Media Bill passed through parliament early this morning and a new and dark period is starting in Turkey. Saying it was “solving citizens’ problem,” the government just solved its own problem. The aim is to gag and illuminate its own periods of darkness.
Aylin Kotil: The social media regulation has been approved and a crime committed by parliamentary means. This is clearly contrary to the article of the Constitution on the freedom to express and publish thoughts. #CallAHaltToTheCensorshipLaw
Can Gürses: The year is 2020 and we are busying ourselves so social media is not prohibited in the country. We are on the verge of losing the sole environment in which individuals can make their voices heard most independently and stridently on events of all kinds. Like North Korea, like China, like Iran. We will not remain silent. #CallAHaltToTheCensorshipLaw
Zeki Kayahan Coşkun: Had it not been for social media, we would not have heard about students and workers who suffered injustice, violence against women, Nadira’s suspicious death, abuse of children in hostels, cruelty towards animals, etc., and would have known what and as much as it was wanted for us to know. Come out in support of freedom! #CallAHaltToTheCensorshipLaw (EVRENSEL DAILY)
Hediye Levent
Yusuf Karadaş
Yücel Özdemir