Musk’s X Implementing Turkish Censorship Amid Protests Against The Government
Elon Musk describes himself as a “freedom of freedom of the expression”, but of all times Twitter or X, the Turkish government now supports the systematic censorship of opposition figures. Because there are currently massive protests against the government.
Turkish government uses social media law
The political tensions in Turkey have reached a new highlight in the past few days. After the arrest of the Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoğlu, protests come nationwide – especially at universities. In this heated situation, the platform X blocks numerous accounts from oppositional and activists. Above all, university -related activists with follower numbers are affected between 10,000 and 99,999.
These accounts mainly share information on demonstrations and meeting points for protesters. While some accounts have been completely blocked, others can no longer be reached within Turkey. Like the news portal Political reports, a social media law enacted in 2022 legitimizes these closures. The law criticized by data protectionists grants the Turkish government far -reaching censorship powers. Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya currently announced the identification of 326 “suspicious accounts”, 72 of them abroad. 54 people have already been arrested on the basis of these accounts.
The numbers speak a clear language: According to the X transparency report, around 86 percent of all Turkish blocking inquiries were implemented in the second half of 2024. With over 11,100 applications, Turkey is in second place behind Japan worldwide – for comparison: All EU countries come together for only 3800 inquiries for deletion or closure. An affected activist reported that his account was banned after his contributions had reached a total of six million views. He deviated on a second account.
Elon Musk, who described himself as a “freedom of freedom of expression”, had announced in 2023 to publish all official blocking applications in 2023 – a promise that has not been redeemed to this day. The measures go beyond individual account locks. At the same time, the Turkish government is massively restricting access to social networks such as X, Tiktok, Instagram and YouTube. The network blocks are intended to make the coordination more difficult to coordinate other protests that spread despite an official ban on assembly.
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