Law No. 5651, May 23, 2007, Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Suppression of Crimes Committed by means of Such Publications

(1) The Law No. 5651 aims to combat certain online crimes and regulates procedures regarding such crimes committed on the Internet through content, hosting, and access providers.  It also defines the administrative regulations and powers of the Presidency of Telecommunications and Communication (TIB), which has been empowerd to issue blocking orders. (2) The Law regulates the liability of Internet intermediaries, including Content, Access, Hosting service providers and “Mass use” providers, i.e. “Internet cafes,” in Articles 4,5,6 and 7 for the first time in Turkey. On 24 October, 2007 the government published the Regulations governing the access and hosting providers which includes the principles and procedures for assigning activity certificates to those providers. An amended version of these Regulations was published on March 1, 2008. Regulations governing the mass use providers, the so called Internet cafes, was published on November 1, 2007. On 30 November, 2007, the government published the Regulations Governing the Publications on the Internet, which included detailed principles and procedural matters regarding to the application of Law No. 5651. In February 2011, BTK released a decision titled the “Safer Internet”, requiring service providers to offer to their customers the option to use one of four packages: Family, Children, Standard and Domestic package. Safer Internet Service can be activated, de-activated or profiles can be changed by applying to any of the online operating centers, Short Message Service (SMS), call center or Internet service providers. (3) Although the Law was enacted to protect children from pornographic content in the Internet, as a consequence of the website blocking powers given to TIB Presidency ex officio by Article 8, the number of blocked websites in Turkey hit a figure around 40.000 in 2014. (4) In February 2014, the Law has been amended with more strict rules by the Government hrough two omnibus bills (see above).

A critical assessment of the Law No. 5651 could be found here.