Turkey banned on Tuesday ads on Twitter, Periscope and Pinterest over their non-compliance with a controversial new law that requires social media platforms to appoint legal representatives in the country, according to Economic Times.
Meanwhile, the companies that refuse to designate an official representative are subjected to fines, followed by advertising bans and could face bandwidth reductions that would make their platforms too slow to use.
"We hope that Twitter and Pinterest which have still not announced their representatives will rapidly take the necessary steps," Omer Fatih Sayan, the deputy minister in charge of communications and infrast reported.
Mr. Sayan added: ''It is our last wish to impose bandwidth reductions for social networks that insist on not complying with their obligations.” There was no immediate comment from Twitter and Pinterest over the advertising ban.
On other hand, Facebook avoided the advertising ban after it announced Monday that it had begun the process of assigning a legal entity in Turkey, joining LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Dailymotion and the Russian social media site VKontakte, which have agreed to set up legal entities in Turkey.
In contrast, the rights groups explained that the decision by international tech companies to bow to Turkish pressure and appoint representatives would lead to censorship and violations of the right to privacy and access to information. The Freedom of Expression Association says more than 450,000 domains and 42,000 tweets have been blocked in Turkey as of October.
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