Criminal Court of Peace, Recep Konuk Corruption Case, 2010

A 2010 decision of the Turkish criminal court of peace provides an important precedent in regards to how Turkish courts should interpret and apply the provisions of Law No. 5651 to search term suggestions. The court held that Google cannot be held responsible for search-term suggestions appearing on its search engine when the search term “recep konuk corruption” and “recep konuk’s corruptions” appear. The court reasoned that what is being requested for removal is the search term suggestions and not content as understood by Law No. 5651. The court premised its reasoning as follows: “The removal of content which is reached through these search results can be requested from the content provider in accordance with the Law No. 5651 { . . . . The obligations of the access providers are within the context of Article 6 and the request should be made to the access provider.” The court grants that search term suggestions are not to be considered content as understood under Law No. 5651.