TBMM Digital Media Commission President Hüseyin Yayman made statements regarding the meeting held yesterday at the TBMM with Google Türkiye representatives.
While it was stated that Google took a green step regarding digital copyright, Yayman said, “It is a historical step for Turkey and the press sector.”
Hüseyin Yayman made the following statements on CNN Türk:
There was a saying on these matters: If you button the first button of your shirt correctly, you will button the rest correctly. It was a historical step. I can say that a very important step has been taken. A historic step for Türkiye and the press industry.
There are steps that we need to take, which Google is open to. We need to restructure the idea law. We have no work on this issue. First, we are in contact with our group president. Abdullah Bey is aware that a preparation needs to be made.
We met with our Minister at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. “We are ready, we will start working,” he said. The first is to make the news a copyright issue and then bring it to the parliament. I have to say this here. The media industry is the party to this issue. There is labor theft here, and unfortunately, people’s work and efforts are taken and used by others. We want to prevent labor theft.
PREPARATIONS WILL BE MADE FOR THE NEW LEGISLATIVE TERM
Secondly, there are agreements made by Google in Europe. Google has to pay the fees. We brought all the parties together. We continue to talk. We will have made our preparations with the new legislative period. We are discussing the issue at a round table and negotiating. We are in a win-win strategy where everyone will be happy.
We do not approach the issue in terms of sanctions. Google also transparently stated that they would not take a negative attitude. First of all, they wanted to bring Turkey’s legal regulation to today’s conditions. They said how the distribution, which we call deregulation, would be like. On the other hand, this will be a new practice in Turkey. I think we are at the beginning of a difficult but good beginning.
WILL TIKTOK BE BANNED IN TURKEY?
Our commission is one of the most working commissions in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. We held our 8th meeting during this period. It is important to meet 8 times in 1 year. All MPs voiced their criticisms about TikTok in the entire meeting. Our commission, our government is against censorship. In this sense, we are focusing on TikTok getting itself in order and the publication of these contents.
A constitution and community rules need to be redefined. Our citizens who see me say “Turn off TikTok”. Content on TikTok is neither universal nor compliant. It is not possible to continue sharing these contents and depict the posts that raise the society. Our citizens are also in favor of shutting down TikTok.
