Internet freedom in Turkey deteriorated in 2024, with authorities blocking access to 740,624 domain names and 8,762 news reports, according to the 2024 Internet Censorship Report.
The findings of the report, authored by journalist Ali Safa Korkut, show that 1,897 social media accounts, including those belonging to 51 journalists and media organizations, were also restricted.
By comparison the 2022 edition recorded access blocks on 35,066 domains and 3,196 news reports, a more than twenty-fold increase over the past two years.
According to the report, most of the 8,762 blocked news stories primarily focus on corruption and misconduct, with 2,705 related to public officials.
It includes a separate section examining a series of access bans imposed on news coverage of a public tender awarded to a former high school friend of Bilal Erdoğan, a son of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. According to the report Bilal Erdoğan later sought a second ban, this time targeting a follow-up article on the original restriction.
Of 7,218 blocked social media posts, 3,177 concerned reports on abuse of women and children, while 1,374 were related to allegations of corruption and misconduct.
In 2024 access to 22 domain names belonging to 12 newspapers was blocked under decisions issued by 16 criminal magistrates of peace, with authorities citing “national security and the public order.”
Over the past decade Turkey has enacted increasingly strict laws targeting digital platforms, most notably a 2022 “disinformation law” that criminalizes the dissemination of “false or misleading information” and carries prison sentences of up to three years. Critics argue that these laws are used to suppress dissent and silence opposition voices.
The government does not disclose the specific criteria used to determine which accounts are labeled criminal or which content is deemed disinformation. Rights advocates say charges such as “disseminating misleading information” and “insulting or threatening the president” have become routine tools for silencing dissenting voices in Turkey.
Turkey’s increasing use of digital censorship has been cited by press freedom monitors as a key factor in the country’s low ranking in global media freedom indices.
The US-based democracy watchdog Freedom House’s “2025 Freedom on the Net” report placed Turkey among the five countries with the steepest long-term declines in internet freedom, citing broad censorship practices and intensified digital controls over the past 15 years. The organization gave Turkey a score of 31 out of 100, putting it in the bottom tier of the 72 countries assessed.
