Bill proposal for TikTok submitted to the Turkish Parliament by an MHP deputy

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Kırıkkale Deputy Halil Öztürk has submitted a bill aiming to prevent inappropriate posts regarding Turkish traditions and customs on TikTok and to prevent crimes on social media platforms. Speaking on the issue, Öztürk stated, ‘We invite the Presidency of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey to take action.’ Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Kırıkkale Deputy Halil Öztürk has prepared a bill to regulate the Law No. 5651 on the Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Combating Crimes Committed Through These Publications to prevent obscene, against Turkish traditions and family structure posts on social media platforms, primarily TikTok, and to prevent crimes committed on these platforms. The drafted proposal has been submitted to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The proposal includes provisions for the prevention of access to all contents contrary to general morality, public interest, Turkish society’s traditions, customs, and practices on TikTok by the Turkey representative, and if not blocked, access restrictions will be applied to the content, as well as procedures for bandwidth limitation or traffic cessation if obligations are not met. The proposal also includes regulations for social media users to log in with their mobile phone numbers and activate a ‘counter’ application on social media platforms.
We cannot stand idly by while the future of Turkish youth is being darkened. Deputy Öztürk, who made a statement on the issue, said, ‘With the aim of putting an end to immorality on TikTok, we have submitted our proposal containing significant changes to the Law No. 5651 on the Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Combating Crimes Committed Through These Publications to the presidency of the assembly. We say that TikTok content should be controlled. It is a proposal within the scope of our proposal. We witness a disgrace on TikTok every day recently. The proposed amendment foresees the prevention of access to all contents contrary to general morality, public interest, Turkish society’s traditions, customs, and practices on the social network provider named TikTok by the Turkey representative. If TikTok does not block such content, we open the way for access restrictions with decisions from the prosecution and the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK). If TikTok does not comply with this decision within 15 days, we propose first a 50% bandwidth reduction, and if this obligation is not fulfilled within 30 days, we propose the complete cessation of bandwidth traffic in Turkey. The immorality and obscenities on TikTok have become unacceptable to our whole society. By introducing a legal regulation, we no longer want to witness these images. We cannot stand idly by while the future of Turkish youth is being darkened.
‘We will have a very clear view of who committed the crime.’ Öztürk, emphasizing that it will be an important step in preventing crimes, said, ‘In our proposal, we also foresee the obligation to enter a phone number when accessing social media applications. We make it mandatory to enter a mobile phone number when a person logs into social media applications. In this way, we will be able to reach those who commit all crimes, such as character assassination, very quickly and prevent trolling. We will have a very clear view of who committed the crime. Another proposal of ours is to prevent screen addiction with a counter. The social media user will be able to see the applications and how much time they spend with the counter application. By activating the countdown feature in the counter, the application will automatically close at the end of the time. Thus, social media and screen addiction will be prevented, and other disorders will also be prevented.
‘We invite the Presidency of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey to take action.’ Calling on the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and deputies, Öztürk said, ‘Our reason for making these changes is to prevent immorality, to bring the Turkish youth together with a clean and healthy future, to sustain our traditions and customs, to preserve our national and spiritual values, to put an end to character assassinations, to prevent swearing, insults, and violence. We invite all our deputies and the Presidency of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey to take action for the implementation of this work. We submitted our proposal as of today. Hopefully, it will be referred to the relevant committee by our assembly president, matured there, and we believe that we will put an end to character assassinations, particularly on TikTok, through this proposal.’