Turkey tightens its grip over social media

The Turkish parliament has cleared a controversial law, which has provisions to control the operation of social media platforms.

As per the law, all social media firms with more than a million Turkish users is to set up local offices and comply with requests to remove content.

The law has provisions to punish with fines those firms which do not comply with the provisions of the law.

Notably, no social media giants have responded to the new law. The silence of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube is highly suspicious and questionable.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is known for his irritation towards the freedom of speech and expression.

As per his view, social media is an immoral thing. He has several times expressed his intention to control the platform of social media.

Actually, the bill has been introduced by the ruling front led by AKP. The ruling front has a comfortable majority in the parliament. The bill has not faced any serious opposition in the law-making house, as the voice of the opposition has been sharply reduced over the years by the ruling front through various anti-democratic policies.

At present, Turkey is largely an authoritarian country. It performs badly in the index of the freedom of speech and expression.

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