The social network X, owned by Elon Musk, has suspended multiple accounts belonging to opposition figures in Turkey, as the country is rocked by massive civil unrest.
Musk, who presents himself as a defender of free speech, said he bought X to restore freedom of expression on the platform.
The suspensions came after mass demonstrations erupted over the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a key political rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Imamoglu was arrested just hours before he was nominated as the presidential candidate of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Politiko reports.
Despite a four-day ban on gatherings imposed by the government, opposition protests have spread across the country.
Much of the opposition activity is taking place at universities, and many associated with the protests are now finding their X accounts suspended, observers say.
Most of the suspended accounts were, according to Yousuf Jan, coordinator and analyst for the Wilson Center's Middle East Program, "activist accounts associated with universities, which were mostly sharing information about protests, locations where students were supposed to gather."
"Many of these accounts belong to 'grassroots activists' with relatively small numbers of followers," says Zhang.
Some accounts were reportedly suspended only in Turkey, while remaining accessible in the rest of the world. Activist Omer Faruk Aslan created a second account to avoid censorship.
"My account was blocked yesterday by court order because tweets exceeded 6 million views," he posted.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on X.com that authorities had identified 326 hate-speech accounts on social media, 72 of which were located abroad. A coordinated operation by cyber and security agencies led to the arrest of 54 suspects in connection with the accounts.
Yerlikaya said that 343 more people were arrested during the third night of protests against Imamoglu's arrest. The arrests took place in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Konya and other cities.
The account suspensions are likely legally justified, as Turkish law allows such actions if requested by the government. The 2022 Social Media Law gives authorities broad and vaguely defined powers to suppress content, Politiko reported.
This is not the first time X has restricted access to content in Turkey. During the 2023 presidential election, X restricted access to certain content "to keep Twitter accessible to the citizens of Turkey," the company said at the time via its government relations account.
"The choice is - to have Twitter completely shut down or to limit access to some tweets," Musk said at the time.
He also announced that X would publicly announce the demands of the Turkish government.
In parallel, access to social networks such as X, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube is restricted in Turkey, according to the organization Netblocks, which monitors internet freedom.
According to Transparency International, X complied with about 2024 percent of the Turkish government’s requests to remove content in the second half of 86, compared to 68 percent in the first half of the year. While that rate is lower than the European Union’s 90 percent, Turkish authorities file about six times as many requests per capita.
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