ISTANBUL (AP) – Turkey’s parliament passed on Wednesday morning a law that gives the government more force to social media despite fears of censorship in a country where critical voices are already drowned. The law requires social media corporations such as Facebook and Twitter to remain representatives in Turkey to address court cases about the content of their platforms. Companies that refuse to appoint an official representative may be subject to fines, advertising bans, and bandwidth discounts that would make their networks too slow to use. More alarming to criticism from the Turkish government, the nine-item law would also require social media providers to buy user knowledge in Turkey. The government says the law was necessary to combat cybercrime and protect social media users. Speaking in parliament Wednesday morning, ruling party lawmaker Rumeysa Kadak said it would be used to eliminate messages containing cyberbullying and insults against women. Lawmakers who oppose the measure called it a “censorship law” that would further restrict freedom of expression in Turkey. Garo Paylan, a Kurdish pro-opposition party lawmaker who arrested members for alleged ties to banned Kurdish activists, said the law would further reduce opportunities for political rivals in the government to succeed in the public. “This will cut the last remaining trachea from the opposition,” Paylan said. The local representative of social media corporations would be guilty of responding to individual requests to remove content that violates privacy and non-public rights within 48 hours or for providing grounds for rejection. has not been removed or blocked within 24 hours. After heavy fines and AdvertisingArray..