Turkish government proposes legislation that would throttle Steam and other gaming platforms into unusability if they don't comply with demands for company data and content removal

Handcuffs lying on a keyboard. The keyboard's enter key features the Türkiye flag.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Türkiye's Family and Social Services Ministry, as part of wider legislation aimed at restricting child social media access, has drafted legislation that would impose restrictions and intensive oversight on Steam, Epic, and other digital gaming platforms (via Türkiye Today).

While the legislation hasn't yet undergone parliamentary consideration, it would allow the Turkish government under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, routinely and credibly accused of authoritarian media censorship and information suppression, to restrict traffic on platforms to the point of being unusable if they don't comply with its requirements.

According to a draft of the legislation obtained by DW Turkish, gaming platforms beyond a certain size would be required to maintain either a regional office or a legal representative within Türkiye, whose information would be reported to Türkiye's Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) and made public. Additionally, BTK would be able to demand any information from digital platforms, including "corporate structure, algorithms, and data processing mechanisms."

The legislation would also require all games sold on digital platforms to have an appropriate age rating, with unrated games being removed from platform listings. While countries like Germany have similar age rating requirements, it's unclear whether Steam's own age rating tools would suffice or if BTK would expect games to be rated by authorities like PEGI—which can involve application fees of thousands of dollars that may not be affordable for indie developers.

The drafted legislation would also grant BTK authority for monitoring and demanding modifications to game content. Under earlier Turkish laws restricting online activity, platforms operating in Türkiye have been required to remove content deemed to be illegal within 24 hours.

"Legislators have spent an enormous amount of energy pushing dangerous legislation that’s intended to limit young people’s use of some of the most popular sites and apps, all under the guise of protecting kids," said the Electronic Frontier Foundation about child safety-oriented online regulation in the US. "Unfortunately, many of these bills would run roughshod over the rights of young people and adults in the process."

Lincoln has been writing about games for 11 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.