Turkey’s Spat With Social-Media Heavyweights Brings Ad Ban Fears
Turkey’s Spat With Social-Media Heavyweights Brings Ad Ban Fears
(Bloomberg) -- Turkey’s legal wrangling with five of the world’s biggest social-media companies is alarming local executives who see a hit to sales and exports if they are forced to stop advertising on the dominant platforms.
Turkish authorities have fined Facebook Inc., YouTube Inc., Twitter Inc., Instagram Inc. and TikTok Inc. 40 million liras ($5.1 million) each for failing to appoint a local representative under laws enforced this year that activists say are an attempt to stifle online dissent.
If the firms don’t comply with the requirement by January, the government could prohibit Turkish companies -- some with foreign partners -- from dealing with the social-media giants.
Turkish companies are estimated to have spent 3.5 billion liras ($450 million) on online advertising in the first half of this year, according to the Advertisers Association. Those ads, mostly on social media, account for 55% of companies’ marketing, it said. The government collects 22.5% of advertisement spending as tax.
Turkish businessmen have shared their concerns with Deputy Trade Minister Riza Tuna Turagay.
“We’ve appealed to the government to try and find a resolution to the issue,” Hakan Cevikoglu, deputy head of Electronic Commerce Operators Association, said after last week’s meeting with Turagay. “At least, the government should allow us advertising with social-media platforms outside Turkey because that’s critical for our exports.”
Turkey’s Trade Ministry, as well as the Transportation and Infrastructure Ministry which is in charge of the official internet watchdog, declined to comment.
The requirement for firms to appoint a local representative gave the government more leverage against critics in a country that already monitors social media closely and has previously hampered access to websites, including Twitter.
Firms that don’t comply with the social-media law also risk having their internet bandwidth slashed by as much as 90%, making platforms practically too slow to use.
The stiffer regulations forced companies to respond within 48 hours to requests to remove content, allowing authorities to quickly block access to anything they might consider illegal.
Turkey already ranks behind Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Azerbaijan in Internet freedom, according to Freedom House, a U.S.-based non-governmental organization focusing on democracy and human rights.
It has detained and arrested social-media users on charges including insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and harming the country by criticizing his government’s handling of the economy.
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