Türkiye bans ads on Twitter over failure to appoint local official
A view of the Twitter logo at its corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California, U.S. Nov. 18, 2022. (Reuters Photo)


Türkiye on Friday announced it had imposed advertising bans on Twitter after the social media giant failed to appoint an official representative in Türkiye.

All social media platforms that are accessed over a million times a day are required to name local representatives, who will be responsible for handling government demands and notifications, as per the new social media law, which Türkiye adopted in 2020.

The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) said in an announcement published in the Official Gazette on Friday that Turkish citizens and companies are now banned from placings advertisements on Twitter.

"It has been decided to prohibit the placing of new advertisements by natural and legal persons on X Corp., formerly known as Twitter Inc., which failed to fulfill its obligation to designate ... representatives," the BTK said.

The law envisages a bandwidth reduction by up to 90% if Twitter continues to fail to name a representative in Türkiye within the next three months, said Deputy Transport and Infrastructure Minister Ömer Fatih Sayan on Threads.

In March 2021, Twitter had announced it would set up a legal entity in Türkiye to comply with the new regulations.

The law, which the government said would address unlawful and harmful content, compels platforms to comply with conditions or face fines and bandwidth reduction.