Twitter has announced the creation of a separate legal entity in Turkey to operate the platform in the country. Reported by The Verge. This is required by Turkish laws for social networks with more than a million users.

The platform will also be required to appoint an official representative who will be responsible for fulfilling the requests of local regulators. The latter include requirements to remove inappropriate content, as well as information that violates user privacy. If the requirements are not met, social networks can face fines, advertising bans and slowdowns in traffic speed.

Despite fulfilling the requirements of the authorities, representatives of Twitter say that they intend to “remain committed to protecting the voices and data of people.” The company also pledged to provide transparency in handling government requests.

The requirement to appoint an official representative of social networks in Turkey is contained in the Internet Law No. 5651. The necessary amendments were adopted and took effect in October 5651. The authorities argue their position on the use of the law by the need to protect the population and fight crime. The media and human rights organizations call this a way of using censorship.

On November 2, Turkish cyber-rights expert Yaman Akdeniz said that only the Russian social network VKontakte fulfilled the government’s demands to appoint an official representative. 

On November 5, the Turkish government fined Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. Each of the companies paid a fine of 10 million lire (approximately $ 1,2 million).