Turkiye: President signed Law on Amendments to the Social Services Law and Certain Laws (Law No. 7578) including additional powers for Information and Communication Technologies Authority

On 30 April 2026, the President signed the Law on Amendments to the Social Services Law and Certain Laws (Law No. 7578). The Law expands the powers of the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) over social network providers and introduces a new supervisory regime for a newly defined category of regulated entity, the “game platform”. Where social network providers fail to comply with the obligations under Article 22, BTK may prohibit Turkish-resident taxpayers from placing new advertisements with the non-compliant provider 30 days after notification of a fine. If non-compliance persists, BTK may apply to the Magistrate’s Criminal Court for a bandwidth restriction of 50% after three months, and for a further restriction of up to 90% 30 days after the initial restriction is implemented. The Court may set a lower rate, but not below 50%. The Law requires foreign game platforms with more than 100,000 daily accesses from Turkey to designate a natural or legal person as a representative for communications with BTK, the Union, and judicial and administrative authorities, and to publish the representative’s contact details on their website. BTK may require game platforms to disclose information on their corporate structure, information systems, data processing mechanisms, and other matters directly relevant to the application of the Law, either immediately or within a period not exceeding 15 days. BTK may impose administrative fines on non-compliant game platforms ranging from TRY 1 million to TRY 10 million, increasing to between TRY 10 million and TRY 30 million for continued non-compliance. It may also apply to the Magistrate’s Criminal Court for a bandwidth restriction starting at 30% and increasing to up to 50%, with the Court able to set a lower rate, but not below 30%. Finally, BTK is empowered to issue secondary legislation governing the application of Article 23, including the obligations of game platforms and the procedural rules and substantive criteria for the age-based rating regime. Articles 22 and 23 of Law No. 7578 will enter into force six months after publication in the Official Gazette, in accordance with Article 27.