Turkey to introduce new regulations for OTT services

Turkey is set to introduce new laws that could lead to more regulation for OTT platforms.

The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) and Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) are set to introduce new laws which will force all broadcasters and online content providers to obtain a licence from RTÜK.

While the rules are yet to be outlined, any violation will see an OTT provider given 30 days to alter the offending content. Failure to do this will see them threatened with losing their licence for an initial three months, and later canceled.  

There has already been an outpouring of criticism towards this law, with many saying that it is a form of censorship. 

A statement from the regulator said: “The aim of this regulation is to establish the methods and principles to regulate the presentation and provision of radio, television and on-demand broadcast services, the handing of broadcast licenses to media service providers, the granting of broadcasting authorities to platform administrators and the supervision of the broadcasts in question.”

A spokesperson for Netflix in Turkey said that the company still wants to operate in the country and that it is closely following developments.

Human rights lawyer Kerem Altiparmak said tweeted this regulation is the “biggest step in Turkish censorship history”.

“Everyone who produces alternative news and broadcasts will be impacted by this regulation,” he said. “Every news report that can be against the government will be taken under control.”