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.
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 re-election, 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.
X heeded about 86 percent of government requests to take down content in the second half of 2024 in Turkey, compared to 68 percent in the first half of the year, according to its transparency reports. While the rate of heeding the requests is lower than in the European Union, which hit 90 percent in the second half of 2024, Turkish authorities file about six times more takedown requests per capita.
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The post Musk’s X suspends opposition accounts in Turkey amid civil unrest appeared first on Politico.
