Why is your internet running out? Because someone is watching us

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Everyone is complaining lately that their 60 GB or 50 GB internet packages are running out within the first 10 days.

Everyone who hasn't changed their phone or their phone settings is wondering why their internet packages are being depleted.

We are changing the settings. Even those who are constantly connected to fixed internet at home or work instead of mobile data are seeing their packages run out.

Let me explain why this is happening, while staying as far away from technical jargon as possible:

There is a board decision* published by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) in May 2024.

Article 24 of the decision explains why an internet provider was fined, citing Law No. 5397 and Law No. 5651.

The name of one of these laws is: "Law on the Regulation of Publications Made on the Internet and Combating Crimes Committed Through These Publications."

This law was enacted in 2007 but has been expanded with amendments until 2023.

In summary, this law states the following:

“Hey internet provider, whoever accesses whatever site, you will keep a copy of this for me, and all costs will be borne by you.”

The BTK says that if you do not do this, I will impose an administrative fine of 0.05 percent of your net sales amount.

It also states in the same decision that it has already imposed such fines.

So, while you are downloading 1 GB for yourself,

you are also downloading 1 GB for the BTK.

Of course, will they cover the costs from their own profits?

It is certainly not possible to make such an assumption based solely on this document or law.

However, the BTK has been publishing "Electronic Communications Market Data" since 2009. Moreover, it shares this on its own website four times a year.

Until 2025, the BTK did not know who was visiting which site or where they were messaging from, but by a great coincidence, it has seen it all this year.

It didn't just see it; it shared all of it in the Information and Communication Technologies Authority's (BTK) 2025 first-quarter electronic communications services market data report.

According to BTK data, YouTube has the highest share of total internet traffic by a wide margin.

While YouTube leads in user data consumption with a 46.1 percent traffic share, it is followed by Instagram with 13.0 percent and Netflix with 5.9 percent.

Okay, let's say where we watch videos from isn't that much of a problem, but who messaged from where has also been recorded.

Widely used applications in the Instant Messaging category are included in the chart. According to the data in this chart, the most widely used application in the Instant Messaging category is Instagram with a rate of 55.0 percent. Instagram is followed by WhatsApp (14.8 percent), Facebook (13.0 percent), and Telegram (11.0 percent), respectively.