Elon Musk’s social media platform X has suspended several accounts belonging to opposition figures in Turkey amid widespread civil unrest in the country.
Musk, a self-proclaimed protector of free speech, said he acquired X to restore free speech on the platform.
The suspensions come after extensive demonstrations were sparked by the arrest earlier this week of Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan’s main political rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. İmamoğlu was arrested just hours before he was nominated to be the presidential candidate for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
The opposition protests have spread despite the government banning gatherings for four days.
Much of the opposition activity has centered around universities, and many of those connected to the demonstrations are now finding their X accounts suspended, observers report.
The majority of the suspended accounts were “university-associated activist accounts, basically sharing protest information, locations for students to go,” Yusuf Can, coordinator and analyst at the Wilson Center’s Middle East Program, told POLITICO. Many of these accounts are “grassroots activists” with their followings in the low tens of thousands, said Can.
Some accounts appear to be suspended only in Turkey and not in the rest of the world. Activist Ömer Faruk Aslan created a second account to avoid censorship. “Yesterday, my account was blocked by a court order because the tweets exceeded 6 million views,” he posted.
Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X that authorities have found 326 social media accounts that are inciting hatred, 72 of which were abroad. A coordinated action between cyber and security authorities led to the arrest of 54 suspects related to the social media accounts, said Yerlikaya.
Yerlikaya on Saturday said 343 people were arrested overnight in a third night of protests against İmamoğlu’s arrest. Arrests were made in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Konya and several others, according to media reports.
The account suspensions are likely legal, as Turkish law allows such actions should the government request them. A 2022 social media law gives the government vast and vague power to suppress content.
It’s not the first time that X has restricted access to content in the country. In 2023, when Erdoğan was up for reelection, X restricted content “to ensure Twitter remains available to the people of Turkey,” according to its global government affairs account.
Musk himself said that “the choice is have Twitter throttled in its entirety or limit access to some tweets.” He said X would publicly post the Turkish government’s requests.
In parallel, access to social media like X, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube has been restricted in Turkey, according to internet watchdog Netblocks.
