Dailymotion appoints legal representative in Turkey, follows VK, YouTube, TikTok
Businessman figurines stand in front of an Apple iPad monitor displaying popular social media services logos, including Facebook, Foursquare, Vine, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, Pinterest, MySpace, Tumblr, bebo, Twitter, Blogger, Google Plus, Vimeo, WordPress, LinkedIn and Spotify, in Istanbul, Feb. 10, 2014. (Getty Images)


French video-sharing platform Dailymotion will set up a legal entity in Turkey to serve as a local representative, a move that followed a series of other social media platforms, including YouTube, TikTok and VKontakte (VK), a Turkish official said Saturday.

"One of the foreign-sourced social network providers Dailymotion with more than 1 million daily access from Turkey has appointed a representative in Turkey," Deputy Transport and Infrastructure Minister Ömer Fatih Sayan wrote on Twitter.

"We expect the same step as soon as possible from social networks that have not yet appointed representatives," Sayan added.

On Friday, Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok agreed to appoint a formal representative in Turkey.

Appointing a representative in Turkey became a requirement under the amendment of the law, which took effect on Oct. 1, 2020. The new rule covers social media companies that provide daily access to more than 1 million users in Turkey.

The companies had already been notified of the five stages of penalties for social network providers who fail to appoint a representative in Turkey.

In early December, social media networks, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube, were each handed TL 30 million ($3.83 million) in fines for failing to appoint a representative for Turkey, as required by the new law. The fine was the second sanction following TL 10 million in fines delivered on Nov. 4.