As of Thursday morning, internet users in Türkiye can no longer access the Turkish-language X account of jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. This comes after a Turkish court arbitrarily ordered X to block the account, which has 9.7 million followers. Though X initially complied, the company later said they are challenging the order in court.
Turkish authorities have again ramped up efforts to clamp down on online free expression. The latest escalation follows İmamoğlu’s March 19 detention and the ensuing nationwide anti-government protests. In such a climate, social media companies increasingly risk becoming an apparatus of state censorship.
Human Rights Watch, Article 19, and the Freedom of Expression Association (İfade Özgürlüğü Derneği, İFÖD) wrote to social media companies urging them to resist government pressure and uphold their users’ right to freedom of expression in Türkiye.
Amid the protests, the Information and Communication Techologies Authority (Bilgi Teknolojileri ve İletişim Kurumu, BTK), the Turkish communications watchdog, issued blocking orders indiscriminately targeting hundreds of social media accounts from grassroots student and women’s groups to high profile journalists and even accounts with no followers. According to İFÖD’s EngelliWeb project, at least 471 X accounts were blocked in Türkiye between March 19 and April 12.
In March, Meta published a case study stating that it received court orders to block content related to the protests. The company says it took no action on the protest-related requests but restricted access to content critical of the government or related to LGBTQ and feminist organizations, among others.
Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and X have faced increased pressure in Türkiye, especially since draconian amendments to the country’s internet law were introduced in 2022. While companies’ compliance with content removal requests during and after the March 2025 protests is still unclear, a look at their 2024 transparency reports paints a worrying picture. In 2024, Tiktok complied with 91.8% of Turkish government removal requests. In the second half of that year, Türkiye ranked second globally in government removal requests received by X, and the company complied with 85.66% of them.
Companies have a responsibility to resist pressure to restrict freedom of expression. However, rather than challenging censorship requests where they violate international human rights standards, social media companies have been showing greater willingness to succumb to Turkish authorities’ demands.
Amidst a broadening crackdown on free expression in Türkiye, it is more crucial than ever for social media companies to take a firm and united stance against censorship.