A Turkish court has blocked access to YouTuber Halil İbrahim Balsak’s website and, separately, to a video posted on his YouTube channel, examining how President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other leaders are protected, citing national security and public order.
The order came 13 days after the video was published. Information made public about the ruling offered no detailed explanation of what material in the video or elsewhere on the website was considered a threat.
The Ankara 9th Criminal Court of Peace issued the order on July 27, according to EngelliWeb, a censorship-monitoring project run by Turkey’s Freedom of Expression Association. The decision, numbered 2026/8781, covered balsak.com.tr and the YouTube video “How Is a President Protected?”
Halil İbrahim Balsak runs the Turkish-language Balsak channel, which produces short documentary-style explainers on subjects including politics, geography, history, media, society, science and technology. Balsak’s website says the project has published more than 300 videos and accumulated more than 227 million views.
A screenshot released by EngelliWeb at the time of the ruling showed that Balsak’s YouTube channel had about 496,000 subscribers and that the blocked video had received more than 283,000 views.
The 18-minute video, posted July 14, compares security arrangements for Erdoğan and US President Donald Trump. It discusses armored presidential vehicles, motorcades, police helicopters, special operations snipers and police dogs as well as the US Secret Service, Air Force One and Marine One.
EngelliWeb tagged the decision under Article 8/A of Turkey’s internet law, a provision used to restrict online content on national security and public-order grounds.
