Turkey wants to restrict Steam and other gaming platforms if they don't meet government requirements
Turkey is going to introduce restrictions and increased control over Steam, Epic, and other gaming platforms.
Turkey is going to introduce restrictions and increased control over Steam, Epic, and other gaming platforms.
The relevant bill was developed by the Ministry of Family and Social Services of Turkey as part of broader legislation aimed at restricting children's access to social networks, writes PC Gamer.
If parliament supports this bill, it will allow the government to restrict traffic on platforms to the point that they become unusable if they do not meet established requirements.
According to these requirements, gaming platforms exceeding a certain size will be required to have either a regional office or an official legal representative in Turkey.
Information about them must be submitted to the Turkish Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) and made public. In addition, BTK will be able to request any information from digital platforms, including “corporate structure, algorithms and data processing mechanisms.”
Companies that fail to provide the required data within five days will face increasing fines and, eventually, a slowdown in traffic on their platforms of up to 90%.
The legislation would also require that all games sold on digital platforms have an appropriate age rating, and unrated games would be removed from platform listings. While countries like Germany have similar age rating requirements, it is unclear whether Steam's own tools for determining age ratings will be sufficient, or whether BTK will expect games to be rated by bodies like PEGI, which could involve thousands of dollars in filing fees that may not be affordable for independent developers.
The bill would also give the BTK the authority to monitor and require changes to gaming content. Under previous Turkish laws restricting online activity, platforms operating in Turkey were required to remove content deemed illegal within 24 hours.
As with many recent attempts to regulate online activity in the US, UK and elsewhere, the proposed Turkish bill justifies the measures on the grounds of ensuring the safety of children. However, digital rights groups have criticized many such initiatives, arguing that protecting children is used as a pretext to restrict civil liberties and freedom of information.
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