402 NEWSLETTER 2021 Did Social Network Platforms Comply with the New Regulations in Turkey?* Hazel Coşkun Baylan Introduction The Internet has become a more regulated environment after the Act on Internet Broadcasting and Combating Crimes Committed by Internet Broadcastings numbered 5651 (“Internet BroadcastingAct”) was amended by the Act for the Amendment to the Internet Act numbered 7253 (“Amendment Act”). Strict regulations, such as the requirement to appoint a representative in Turkey, and the on-soil requirement to store the data of the users in Turkey, in a datacenter physically located within Turkish borders, are designated under the Amendment Act for social network providers with daily access of more than one million users, which entered into force on 1 October 2020. Appointment of Representative Asocial network provider is defined under the Internet Broadcasting Act as real and legal persons that enable their users to create, view and share content, such as text, image, voice and location, through the internet for social interaction purposes. As per Additional Article 4 of Internet Broadcasting Act, which was regulated by the Amendment Act, foreign social network providers are required to designate at least one representative in Turkey in order to respond to, and carry out the notifications and requests made by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (“ICTA”), the Union of Access Providers, and other administrative and judiciary authorities within the scope of the Internet Broadcasting Act, and to ensure that the obligations as set forth under the Internet Broadcasting Act are fulfilled. In the event of the appointment of a real person representative, the representative must be a Turkish citizen. * Article of January, 2021
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