Social media platform X has blocked access to over 100 accounts belonging to Turkish journalists, activists and media organizations run by journalists living in exile, in another example of its compliance with censorship requests from the Turkish government.
Among the blocked accounts are those that belong to exiled journalists Cevheri Güven, Sevinç Özarslan, Adem Yavuz Arslan, Emre Uslu, Van Dündar and Amberin Zaman, who are known for their critical reporting on the Turkish government, as well as the X account of the Bold Medya news website, former national footballer Hakan Şükür and Cemre Birand, a human rights activist and widow of the late journalist Mehmet Ali Birand.
A total of 107 accounts are blocked in Turkey, according to a list posted on X.
Listeye girememissiniz 👇 pic.twitter.com/JnboAiQY1D
— Rüzgar (@ruzgarim26) October 22, 2024
The blocking of the accounts came on the same day Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on X that the cybercrime department of the Turkish National Police has identified and is investigating 177 social media users who have allegedly spread propaganda for “Fetö” or shared posts praising Turkish-Islamic cleric Gülen or his movement following the cleric’s death.
“Fetö” is a term coined by the Turkish government to refer to the Gülen movement, inspired by the views of the late cleric Gülen, as a terrorist organization.
A number of these accounts have posted condolences for Gülen or praise of his movement following the cleric’s death, but others did not.
According to a court document received by journalist Özarslan, her account was blocked by an Ankara court based on a request from the Turkish Telecommunications Authority (BTK) on accusations of disseminating terrorist propaganda in her social media posts about Gülen.
The court decision said a total of 119 URL addresses were to be blocked on the grounds that they pose threat to national security and public order.
Gülen, an arch-enemy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who had been living in the United States since 1999, died at a Pennsylvania hospital on October 20.
Following his death, some people including two journalists were detained in Turkey for offering messages of condolence for him on social media or on TV. One of the journalists, Yeni Asya editor-in-chief Kazım Güleçyüz, was arrested on Wednesday.
The blocking of journalist Zaman’s X account, however, does not seem to be related to any posts about Gülen.
Zaman said on X that her account was blocked in Turkey for sharing a photo she took in Athens in October 2022 of graffiti that read “Rise up for Rojova.” She said she found the graffiti interesting, thinking that there were people there who knew about Rojova, the name used for the Kurdish parts of Syria.
The blocking of the X accounts also took place on the same day that Ömer Fatih Sayan, deputy transportation and infrastructure minister, held a meeting with representatives from X.
Sayan announced the meeting on X on Tuesday, saying that “a productive meeting” took place with the law firms and officials representing X while posting photos from the meeting.
“We consulted in detail on the joint steps to be taken in line with our national interests. We are pleased that our relations are strengthening,” said the minister.
X, formerly Twitter, appointed a representative to Turkey in line with a controversial social media law after the company and others were hit with advertising bans for failing to comply with the law.
The law — which human rights and media freedom groups said amounted to censorship — compels social media companies with more than 1 million users to maintain representatives in Turkey to deal with complaints about content on their platforms.
In the run-up-to the general election in May 2023, X complied with a request from the Turkish government to censor four accounts and 409 tweets that were critical of President Erdoğan and his leadership. These added to the hundreds of accounts that X had already censored at the request of the Turkish government in the past, with Twitter even being banned in the country in 2014 for refusing to comply with Erdoğan’s take-down orders.
Poor record in online freedoms
The rampant online censorship in Turkey has made its way into the reports of international organizations as well.
According to a report from the Washington-based Freedom House last week, Turkey, where authorities frequently censor online content and harass individuals for their social media posts, has been ranked the lowest-scoring country in Europe for online freedoms,
Turkey has a score of 31 in a 100-point index, with scores based on a scale of 0 (least free) to 100 (most free). The other two lowest-scoring countries in Europe are Hungary with a score of 69 and Serbia with 70, according to the “Freedom on the Net 2024” report.
Turkish authorities have temporarily blocked access to social media sites, including Facebook, X, Wikipedia and most recently Instagram, which remained blocked for nine days in August and drew international condemnation.
President Erdoğan’s government is regularly accused of muzzling freedom of expression and cracking down on people who express criticism of his government on social media.
Thousands of people face investigation, are prosecuted and sentenced to prison in Turkey for expressing views disliked by the government on social media platforms.
Rights groups routinely accuse Turkey of undermining media freedom by arresting journalists and shutting down critical media outlets, especially since Erdoğan survived the failed coup in July 2016.