Meta Faces Fines in Turkey After Failing to Comply With Removal Orders

Another day, another fine for Meta, this time in Turkey, where Zuck and Co. are facing penalties for failing to comply with local orders.

As reported by Politico, Meta could soon be hit with a significant fine for refusing to comply with official removal orders from Turkish authorities.

As per Politico:

“The Turkish government has been ordering the suspension of social media accounts sharing information on the widespread protests that have followed the arrest of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main political rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.”

Meta has confirmed that it has been fined for refusing to comply with the full scope of these requests, though it did not disclose the scale of those penalties.

This comes as Meta looks to enlist the help of U.S. President Donald Trump to push back against foreign fines, which it claims unfairly penalize American companies.

And there’s a lot to oppose. For example, since November last year:

• Italian authorities have moved to fine Meta $US960 million for historical tax violations
• The Irish Data Protection Commission issued Meta a $US263 million fine related to a 2017 data breach
• The EU Commission penalized Meta with a $US842 million fine for using its scale to boost Facebook Marketplace

That’s over $2 billion in fines, in just five months.

And the hits are set to keep coming, with Australian authorities seeking to alter their News Bargaining Code to keep Meta paying local publishers, and EU regulators set to hand down more fines for rule violations and antitrust breaches.

These are some significant hits, and Meta’s right to oppose at least some of these fines, which have been largely constructed to curb its rising market power.

But it can’t do it by itself.

Zuckerberg’s hope is that by appealing to Trump, in implementing rule changes that align with his demands, that could give the company significant bargaining power, backed by the U.S. government, in opposing these penalties.

And the White House has already indicated that it will be looking to take a stronger stand for U.S. businesses.

Earlier this month, the newly appointed chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) publicly criticized the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which he says is “incompatible with America’s free speech tradition.”

Last month, Vice President JD Vance also criticized EU regulations relating to AI innovation, while Trump himself has also threatened European imports with tariffs in penalty for tech regulations that harm U.S. companies.

Having the full support of the Trump Administration in opposing these fines could save Meta a heap of money, and you can see then why Zuckerberg has been so keen to jump on the MAGA train, and embrace the second Trump term.

I mean, he has no choice either way, but Zuckerberg was less accepting of Trump the first time around. But with billions on the line, Zuckerberg’s strategic realignment makes business sense, and it’ll be interesting to see if that does actually pay off for the company over the next four years.

There definitely seems to be legal logic to oppose a lot of these penalties, and maybe, with the threat of a trade war looming, Meta will be able to reform at least some of these regulatory approaches.