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Turkey To Require Social Media Giants To Appoint Local Representatives (reuters.com) 49

Posted by msmash from the tough-luck dept.
Turkey will require foreign social media companies with high internet traffic to appoint a representative in the country to address concerns raised by authorities over content on their platforms, a draft law seen by Reuters showed. From the report: Companies that do not comply with the new measure could face having their bandwith halved after 30 days by court order, and then slashed by 95% if they hold out another 30 days, it said. The law will apply to social media networks accessed by more than 1 million people daily from Turkey, the draft law said. Ankara strictly polices social media content, especially during periods such as military operations and the current coronavirus pandemic. In the three weeks to April 6, more than 3,500 social media accounts were reviewed, 616 suspects were identified and 229 were detained for "provocative" social media posts, according to the Interior Ministry.
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Turkey To Require Social Media Giants To Appoint Local Representatives More

Turkey To Require Social Media Giants To Appoint Local Representatives

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  • Dictatorship is as dictatorship does.

    • Dictatorship is as dictatorship does.

      The law is being debated in a legislature democratically elected by the people of Turkey.

      How is that a "dictatorship"?

      • Re:A measure of control (Score:5, Informative)

        by Twilight_rfu99 ( 941275 ) on Friday April 10, 2020 @02:53PM (#59929668)
        The most important cornerstone in a democracy is a free and open media. Turkey does not have that, and per definition is not a real democracy. When the government takes over the media, you have a dictatorship.

        • The most important cornerstone in a democracy is a free and open media

          I hardly consider social media to be "open media"....which is traditionally news outlets of some fashion.

          Frankly, if we did away wish social media altogether tomorrow, I think not only would it not have that big of an impact on society in a negative way, I think it would actually benefit us...

          We got along and were more tolerant in the days before "social media".

          Ditching Facebook alone would do the world more good than harm right off t

          • Re:A measure of control (Score:5, Informative)

            by Twilight_rfu99 ( 941275 ) on Friday April 10, 2020 @03:37PM (#59929830)
            I am not talking about social media. Turkey has nationalised most newspapers and TV stations. The small media that is left is being threatened and journalist jailed. You obviously don’t know how bad things have gotten in Turkey in the last few years.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by jwymanm ( 627857 )
            The getting along was actually fake before. Nobody really crossed into each others social footprints.. or physical for that matter. Facebook/social media have driven a lot of polarizing SJW crap but they've also brought way more people together (for better or worse) than split folks apart. I believe it has driven record levels of travel to and from places nobody would've gone and I believe it's why governments are trying to lock their citizens down even more because they fear the inevitable. That their peo

        • The most important cornerstone in a democracy is a free and open media.

          Democracy works best with a free press. But press freedom is not a requirement to be a democracy.

          If I type "define: democracy" into Google, not a single definition mentions the media.

          Turkey does not have that, and per definition is not a real democracy.

          They are also not True Scotsmen.

          When the government takes over the media, you have a dictatorship.

          Requiring social media companies to have an "in-country" representative is not "taking over".

          So far, Turkey doesn't even have such a requirement. They are just debating it, in a legislature, consisting of elected representatives of the people.

          • Re:A measure of control (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Twilight_rfu99 ( 941275 ) on Friday April 10, 2020 @03:45PM (#59929868)

            Democracy works best with a free press. But press freedom is not a requirement to be a democracy.

            The only way a real democracy can work, is with a free and open press. How can you know who to vote for, if the truth is hidden from you? Dictators are using your argument all the time: "We had elections, so we are a democracy." Elections in itself does not a democracy make.

        • The politicians lie.

          The media lie.

          That's true for democracies as well as dictatorships.

          The deciding difference is that in a democracy, they tell different lies.

        • When business takes over the media, you have a dictatorship.

          There, fixed that for you.

      • Do we really need to list the dictators throughout history that were democratically elected by their people? Really?

      • Especially those things that stop them form being a dictator for others!

        It's how they redefined "freedom" as "MY freedom to harm you and take away your freedom".

        Apart from that, Turkey is the new Iraq. Erdogan is the new Saddam Hussein. A US puppet aspiring to have his own dictatorship, with blackhawks and hookahs, whose status between "valuable ally in the region" and "the new Hitler" can flip overnight, depending on his obedience to the USA, unrelated to any dictatorship behavior or religious nutjobbery t

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gtall ( 79522 )

        Erdogan is a whore. He's been imprisoning anybody he thinks may oppose him. He deserves no benefit of any doubt.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • That would be a "NOPE!"

  • 5 years from now (Score:4, Funny)

    by bobstreo ( 1320787 ) on Friday April 10, 2020 @02:41PM (#59929628)

    "Did you know there used to be a country called Turkey before they blocked all the social media sites?"

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by TXJD ( 5534458 )
      Exactly... let's see how well it goes after they turn off access to millions.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by aitikin ( 909209 )
      Will it be discussed in Byzantium?

    • None. Because they're all here in Germany! :D

      (Note that literally my best friend used to be a Turkish immigrant, and we stopped being friends because he was too close to a bunch of Turkish criminals. So yeah, my joke sounds biased and racist to you, if you're prejudiced against me and imply I blindly hate. When really I got a nuanced view and could go on for hours about the various pros and cons and racist lies and actual truths about the whole thing. So keep calm and eat Döner Kebab! :D)

  • ... to offer actual phone numbers and local offices to actually talk to real fucking humans from that company and tell them to finally fix their shit! Or tell you how to solve this problem they didn't predict!

    Because being a fucking creepy sociopath with no conscience is less easy, if somebody can yell at you or punch you in your stupid face! (And that is true for asshole clients aswell.)

    Like, hellooo, who here thinks the YouTube algoritm isn't a clusterfuck of dumpster fires?
    I mean the fucking thing sugges

  • That "local representative" will be construed as country presence.

    Soon enough, those companies will have to comply with more and more rocambolesque local restrictions, and at some point in the future, your local executives will be jailed if/when the local goverment requests something that HQ can/won't do.

    And on top of that, some autoritarian regimes will watch atentively this experiment, and if it results, they will do exactly the same stuff.

    Instead, use the money you would have to pay to stablish the local

  • Gollum ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Freischutz ( 4776131 ) on Friday April 10, 2020 @03:28PM (#59929798)

    Turkey To Require Social Media Giants To Appoint Local Whipping Boys For Erdogan To Flog In Public Whenever He Throws A Tantrum Over Being Compared To Gollum

    There, I fixed the headline. https://foreignpolicy.com/wp-c... [foreignpolicy.com]

  • Must be willing to go to jail if the tinpot dictator throws a fit.

    Quite frankly, this problem has had a solution for porn magazines when it was still a bit "iffy". You put some fall guy into the "chef editor" position, then when the raid comes, the bum you hired for that spot goes to jail and you replace him with another bum. Rinse, repeat as required.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      In the 1960s, some underground, counterculture groups created a false identity and dropped his name as one of their group leaders whenever they suspected an undercover FBI agent was present. The FBI spend years and quite a lot of dollars/resources trying to track this guy down.

    • why don't they just appoint someone who's already in jail for life? i mean that's the whole reason for this, right?

  • The kind of fear that those attempting to wield illegitimate totalitarian power overreach live in every day and night.
    Tin-pot tyrants. So 20th century. yeesh.

  • All those last hundreds of years, we have called them 'hostages'.
    If something doesn't go as the ruler wants, something bad will happen to those local 'representatives'.

  • I know in this special case of a semi-totalitarian regime, it's pretty clear why the measure was taken but, to be fair, in a 'normal' country, you would expect some systemic accountability from organisations with such a huge influence.
  • Zuckerberg, to his staff: "Hmm, who do we hate enough around here to station permanently in Turkey, to take the blame for all the evil shit we do around here? Has to be someone we don't mind being tortured and executed for our crimes. Suggestions, anyone?"

  • Respond that <insert-your-company-here> operates in the United States and will comply with all relevant US laws, not Turkish laws. If Turkey wants to limit bandwidth, go right ahead and do that, it's Turkey's citizens that'll be taking that up with the Turkish government. Then send a note around that travel to Turkey by company management is not advised. Doubt it'll make any difference to the company, but it'll sure cause some outrage in Turkey.

  • Many countries require a local representative for product liability. Can use an agent or establish a LLC with representative director or directors. The agent or LLC can hire liaison legal , administration services including insurance. Physical products , powered, health, etc could harm citizens. Applying to information services creeping into a more obscure area but defamation as well as misleading information real harms that news media get sued and need to defend controversial positions. I do not know the d

  • If these companies do hire/appoint someone to do this job they will simply be a conduit for threats/promises to block them.

    If they don't, it's an excuse to block them.

    Either way it's about fascism.

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