Turkey moves to oversee all online content, raises concerns over censorship

Turkey moves to oversee all online content, raises concerns over censorship
Turkey moves to oversee all online content, raises concerns over censorship

Turkey on Thursday granted its radio and television watchdog sweeping oversight over all online content, including streaming platforms like Netflix and online news outlets, in a move that raised concerns over possible censorship.

The move was initially approved by Turkey's parliament in March last year, with support from President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party and its nationalist ally.

The regulation, published in Turkey's Official Gazette on Thursday, mandates all online content providers to obtain broadcasting licenses from RTUK, which will then supervise the content put out by the providers.

Aside from streaming giant Netflix, other platformslike local streaming websites PuhuTV and BluTV, which in recent years have producedpopular shows, will be subject to supervision and potential fines or loss oftheir license.

In addition to subscription services like Netflix,free online news outlets which rely on advertising for their revenues will alsobe subject to the same measures.

"The aim of this regulation is to establish themethods and principles to regulate the presentation and provision of radio,television and on-demand broadcast services, the handing of broadcast licensesto media service providers, the granting of broadcasting authorities toplatform administrators and the supervision of the broadcasts inquestion," the regulation said.

It said that the content providers that do not complywith the regulation and RTUK's guidelines would be given 30 days to adjust theircontent to the required standards or face having their licenses suspended forthree months and later canceled. Thursday's announcement did not specify whatstandards the watchdog would expect.

A spokeswoman for Netflix in Turkey said the platform was closely following developments and wanted to continue providing content for Turkey.

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