Online safety & content laws in Turkey (2026)

A comprehensive amendment package was submitted to parliament proposing to redefine 'content removal' as blocking internet access rather than server deletion, allow individuals to obtain 24-hour judicial blocking orders, and require platforms to disclose algorithmic and data-processing details to BTK. Represents the most significant proposed expansion of the framework since the 2022 disinformation law.

Turkey's BTK circulated a draft regulation allowing it to block social media platforms without a court order on national security grounds, effective January 2026; non-compliant platforms would face up to 95% bandwidth throttling and fines of TRY 30 million. The move would formalize extrajudicial blocking already practiced informally.

Published in the Official Gazette on 19 March 2025, Law No. 7545 establishes a Cybersecurity Presidency (created by Presidential Decree No. 177 on 8 January 2025) and a Cybersecurity Board, mandates incident reporting and regular audits for all public and private entities in cyberspace, and imposes criminal penalties and activity bans for non-compliance after a one-year transition period.

Turkish authorities ordered Instagram blocked for approximately eight days in August 2024, providing no legal justification or public statement; the block drew international condemnation and illustrated how BTK routinely uses extrajudicial blocking pressure to compel platform compliance with government content demands.

Parliament passed amendments to Law 5651 and the Penal Code creating a criminal offence of disseminating 'false information' about internal or external security, public order, or public health, punishable by 1–3 years' imprisonment (up to 5 years if done anonymously); platforms must remove flagged content within 4 hours or face 90% bandwidth throttling. Enacted months before the 2023 elections, it was widely condemned as a tool to silence online dissent.

Having missed the local-representative deadline under Law No. 7253, Twitter, Pinterest, and Periscope had advertising bans imposed by BTK on 19 January 2021—the penultimate sanction before 90% bandwidth throttling. Both Twitter and Pinterest subsequently complied and appointed Turkish representatives, validating the escalating-sanctions enforcement model.

Published in the Official Gazette on 31 July 2020 and in force from 1 October 2020, Law 7253 amended Law 5651 to require social network providers with over 1 million daily Turkish users to appoint a Turkey-resident representative, store Turkish users' data in Turkey, respond to content removal requests within 48 hours, and file biannual transparency reports; non-compliance triggers fines up to TRY 40 million and eventually 90% bandwidth throttling.

Following its 2 April ruling on the Twitter ban, Turkey's Constitutional Court ruled on 29 May 2014 that the blanket YouTube ban (imposed 27 March 2014) violated constitutional freedom of expression and ordered its immediate removal. The two rulings together established that wholesale platform blocking orders must be proportionate and subject to judicial review.

Turkey's Constitutional Court ruled that TIB's Twitter ban imposed on 20 March 2014 violated freedom of expression; the government initially defied the ruling before restoring access, exposing a pattern of executive resistance to judicial oversight of internet censorship decisions that would shape subsequent legal amendments.

The Telecommunications Communication Presidency banned Twitter on 20 March 2014 after corruption-related leaks went viral on the platform, then banned YouTube on 27 March after audio recordings of senior government officials were posted there. Both were the first high-profile exercises of Law 5651's expanded 2014 administrative blocking powers and triggered global condemnation and a domestic constitutional crisis.

Amendments enacted in early 2014 granted TIB authority to impose URL-level and domain-level blocks without a court order for privacy or national security reasons, sharply reducing judicial oversight. The Venice Commission later found these provisions incompatible with the rule of law; the amendments directly enabled the March 2014 Twitter and YouTube bans.

Published in the Official Gazette on 23 May 2007, Law No. 5651 established Turkey's primary internet regulatory framework, defining obligations for content, hosting, access, and mass-use providers and creating the TIB to execute court-ordered and administrative blocking decisions. Originally aimed at child protection and specific crimes such as obscenity and suicide incitement, the law has since been repeatedly expanded into a sweeping content-control and platform-obligations regime.