 has petitioned a court in İstanbul to block access to the X account of jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu following his call for a boycott of pro-government businesses.){kind=link}
A lawyer with ties to Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has petitioned a court in İstanbul to block access to the X account of jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu following his call for a boycott of pro-government businesses.
The petition, filed by lawyer Burak Bekiroğlu at a penal court of peace in İstanbul, seeks to impose an access ban on İmamoğlu’s X account in Turkey until the end of his trial.
İmamoğlu, seen as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s most powerful political rival, was arrested on March 23 on corruption charges widely viewed as politically motivated. Since his arrest, his legal team has been managing his X account, using it to rally supporters and protest his pretrial detention.
In a message posted Monday, İmamoğlu urged citizens to join a boycott launched by main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel against pro-government businesses and media companies. The boycott is intended as a protest against his arrest and the broader crackdown on opposition figures.
On Tuesday Bekiroğlu accused İmamoğlu of attempting to destabilize the Turkish economy by ordering a boycott from prison and spreading disinformation to influence the judiciary. He said he requested the access ban to remain in place until the trial’s conclusion.
The mayor has yet to be formally indicted.
Mücahit Birinci, another lawyer close to the AKP government, also urged pro-government businesses on Monday to petition courts for an access ban on İmamoğlu’s X account, accusing him of trying to damage the Turkish economy.
The attempt to block İmamoğlu’s account comes amid a sweeping wave of digital censorship in Turkey, where authorities have intensified efforts to silence dissent following his detention and subsequent arrest.
X revealed last week that Turkish authorities have issued court orders to block more than 700 accounts since İmamoğlu’s detention on March 19 — orders that the company said it is contesting. In a public statement X described these broader restrictions as “unlawful” and pledged to fight them through legal channels.
The company later announced that it had filed a legal challenge with Turkey’s Constitutional Court against a government order to block 126 user accounts linked to protests of İmamoğlu’s arrest. X is contesting only these 126 accounts in the legal filing, leaving the total number of blocked accounts uncertain, though estimates suggest the figure is in the hundreds.
Under Elon Musk’s ownership, X has faced criticism for complying with censorship requests from authoritarian regimes, with Turkey ranking among the top countries seeking account suspensions and content removals.
The latest wave of account blocks follows a broader trend of X complying with Ankara’s escalating crackdown on dissent. In recent months the platform has enforced Turkish court orders to restrict access to hundreds of accounts, including those belonging to journalists, activists and media organizations.