Turkish authorities have blocked access to dozens of social media accounts that have posted about protests following the detention and subsequent arrest and removal from office of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, BBC News Turkish service reported.
The accounts, belonging to student groups, academics and civil society organizations, became inaccessible within Turkey after they shared content critical of the government or related to protests that began March 19, when İmamoğlu was taken into custody for questioning.
The move drew criticism from free speech advocates and digital rights groups,
Among the blocked accounts are İstanbul University Student Solidarity, Galatasaray University Solidarity Network and ODTÜ Must Be Defended, all of which are affiliated with university movements.
Other restricted accounts include those of academic Cenk Yiğiter, who was fired by government decree following coup attempt in 2016; the Platform for Equality for Women; and the Independent Cinema Workers Center.
Social media platform X issued a statement saying it is contesting multiple court orders from Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority to block more than 700 accounts, including those of journalists, politicians, students and media outlets.
“We believe this decision from the Turkish government is not only unlawful, it hinders millions of Turkish users from news and political discourse,” X stated, pledging to defend free speech through legal channels.
The protests erupted after İmamoğlu, a prominent opposition figure, was detained along with nearly 100 others last Wednesday. From March 19 to 21, users in İstanbul reported widespread disruptions accessing platforms including WhatsApp, X, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Access appeared to normalize by the morning of March 21, although Turkish authorities made no official statements regarding the outages.
Işık Mater, research director at UK-based internet monitoring group NetBlocks, told BBC Turkish that the disruptions were likely the result of targeted filtering, not traditional bandwidth throttling.
“User interfaces freeze or stop responding, giving the impression of slowness without showing connection errors,” she said, describing the approach as more opaque and confusing for users.
Professor Yaman Akdeniz of Bilgi University, a co-founder of the Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD), noted that the disruption lasted approximately 42 hours, longer than similar access restrictions imposed after past national crises, such as the 2023 earthquakes or the 2022 İstiklal Avenue bombing. He emphasized that this instance appears to have been limited to İstanbul, unlike previous nationwide restrictions.
“There is no court order, no written explanation. It appears to be entirely arbitrary,” Akdeniz said, warning that such measures lack transparency and legal oversight.
