Turkiye passes legislation to tighten its grip on Steam and other gaming platforms, but it's social media companies that really get it in the neck

In February this year, Turkiye's Family and Social Services Ministry announced draft legislation to impose various restrictions and overweening oversight on Steam, Epic, and other gaming platforms. The country's parliament has now approved the bill, with some minor changes, which will mean tough times ahead for such platforms, and newly limited access for Turkish players.

The bill is part of a wider legislative push which, the government claims, is about protecting children by restricting access to things like social media. Some of the requirements of the new legislation are pretty boilerplate, such as clearly displaying age ratings and offering "clear [and] easy-to-use" parental tools, but the platform-holders will surely breathe a sigh of relief that the regulator will not have the authority to ban them (though it can throttle traffic after certain violations).

Any gaming platform that has more than 100,000 daily users in Turkiye must now appoint a local representative (though they don't have to open an office). This rep's contact info must be easily accessible on the platform itself, declared to the authorities, and they have to respond to government requests within a strict timeframe.

If the platforms breach the new rules, first up is a warning and one month to correct the violation. If they fail to fix the issue to the authorities' satisfaction within that month, then it's a 10 million Turkish lira fine ($223,000), and after another month of non-compliance the fine trebles to 30 million Turkish lira ($668,000). Should the fines not have the desired effect, this is when the regulator would begin limiting access speeds to the platform in question.

But next to the social media companies, gaming platforms arguably got off lightly. Many more draconian proposals were rejected. The bill no longer grants authorities the power to shut down gaming platforms, and it removes a requirement for mandatory data-sharing with the government, as well as one for maximum playtime limits. A proposal to ban unrated games was rejected, though they will now be automatically assigned an 18+ rating. Individual developers no longer have the duty to verify a user's age: it's down to the platforms.

The large social media firms, on the other hand, got it in the neck. First up, all social media for children under 15 is now banned in Turkiye. In addition, these platforms must now comply with content removal requests that involve national security or public safety within one hour, as well as ensuring any deleted material cannot be re-uploaded. They'll also be required to provide data to the authorities on-demand with a 15-day deadline for compliance, and to fund risk assessments on the social impact of their platforms.

There's also a new framework of fines for social media platforms, and much more onerous consequences if their new obligations are not met. If a platform does not act on an issue within 30 days of being asked, the regulator can now prohibit any new advertising on the platform. Should the authorities still be unhappy, they can then impose bandwidth reductions of 50 percent that can rise to 90 percent.

The problem being, of course, that what's a matter of "public safety" or "illegal content" is very much in the eye of the authoritarian beholder. This bill was introduced under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose government is routinely accused of authoritarian media censorship and information suppression: it says this is all about ensuring child safety, but being able to squeeze these sites in such a way is a big stick that can be waved at them for all sorts of reasons as the Turkish government sees fit.

Although the law has been passed, it has not yet come into effect. When it does, Steam and everyone else will have six months to comply with the new regulations.