Turkish parliament OKs bill to 'fight disinformation'

ANKARA

The Turkish parliament adopted a law seeking up to three years in prison for those accused of spreading disinformation on Oct. 13.

The law proposed by the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) contains wide-ranging provisions covering domestic journalism as well as social media.

With a new article added to the Turkish Penal Code, the crime of “publicly disseminating misleading information to the public” has been defined.

According to the article, “a person who publicly disseminates false information about the internal and external security, public order and general health of the country, in a way that is disturbing the public peace, with the sole motive of creating anxiety, fear or panic among the public” will be given a prison sentence of one to three years.

If the crime is committed by hiding the real identity of the perpetrator or within the framework of the activities of an organization, the penalty will be increased by half.

A decision could be taken to remove and/or block access in case of publications on the internet that have sufficient suspicion that it was published over seized documents or information related to the duties and activities of the National Security Organization (MİT).

Within the scope of the obligation to have a representative on social media platforms, it will no longer be sufficient for the representative in question to be a Turkish citizen only, as the representative will have to reside in Türkiye.

The social network provider will be obliged to act in accordance with the principle of accountability, to ensure transparency in the implementation of the law, and to provide all necessary information and documents regarding the implementation of the law to the Information and Communication Technologies Authority’s (BTK) when requested.