Video: Turkey Lawmaker Breaks His Phone With Hammer In Parliament. Here's Why

A Turkish politician, Burak Erbay, destroyed a phone with a hammer in parliament on Thursday to show his opposition to new disinformation and social media legislation, according to the news agency Reuters.

Mr Erbay is a Member of Parliament for the opposition Republican People's Party. Mr Erbay described the new law to criminalise the spread of false information on digital platforms as "the biggest censorship law" in Turkey's history.

"You have only one freedom left, the smartphones in your pocket, which have Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, with which you can communicate with. Today is October 12th. If the disinformation law passes in parliament, you can break your phones and throw them away like this, my young brothers and sisters. But on June 2023, my young brothers and sisters will teach them a lesson, " he said.

After that, he broke the smartphone by hitting it with a hammer before dropping it to the floor.

Gençlerimiz, tek özgürlüğünüz var cebinizdeki telefonlar; Instagram var, Facebook var, YouTube var, orada haberleşiyorsunuz. Eğer bu yasa Meclisten geçerse, telefonlarınızı artık kırıp atabilirsiniz. #SansüreHayır #TelefonaGerekKalmayacak #YasakçılarDeğilGençlerKazanacak pic.twitter.com/DeHhGRLBtO

— Av. Burak Erbay (@burakerbaychp) October 12, 2022

But despite the protests and concerns, Turkey's parliament passed a bill proposed by President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday that would imprison journalists and social media users for up to three years for spreading "disinformation,".

Lawmakers from Erdogan's ruling AK Party (AKP) and its nationalist allies, MHP, who together have a majority, voted to approve the bill even as opposition MPs, European countries, and media rights activists have called to scrap it.

The law's Article 29 raised the most concerns over free expression. It says those who spread false information online about Turkey's security to "create fear and disturb public order" will face a prison sentence of one to three years.

Critics have said there is no clear definition of "false or misleading information", leaving the law open to abuse by courts they say have cracked down aggressively on open dissent in recent years in the country of some 85 million. 

(With inputs from Reuters)