The Turkish Competition Board fined Meta $18.6 million for violating competition law.

Turkey's competition regulator urged Meta to restore competition and produce yearly reports on the initiatives it will take over the next five years.

Meta, Facebook's parent corporation, was fined TRY 346.72 million equivalent of $18.63 million on Wednesday for violating competition legislation. According to the Turkish authorities, the firm enjoyed a strong position in the personal social networking services and online video advertising marketplaces, and it hampered competitors by combining data obtained through the company's primary services Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. On Wednesday, a Meta spokeswoman stated that the company disagreed with the Turkish competition authority's conclusions.

According to the spokesman, Meta preserves user privacy and gives consumers transparency and control over their data, and the firm "will examine all possibilities."

According to Turkey's competition authority, Meta must move to restore competition in these areas and produce yearly reports on the initiatives it will take over the following five years.

It stated that the fine was based on the company's earnings in 2021.

After the messaging app requested users to consent to allow Facebook gather user data like as phone numbers and whereabouts, a shift that was pushed out internationally, the competition authority initiated an inquiry into WhatsApp, and subsequently Facebook, in 2021.

In Turkey, which passed a bill last week that would imprison journalists and social media users for up to three years for propagating "disinformation," social media corporations have been a focus of attention.

According to analysts, social media corporations are unlikely to fully comply with the law requiring them to remove "disinformation" content and share user data with authorities.