Turkish authorities have ordered the official YouTube channel of jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and an X account operated by his presidential campaign office to be blocked, although both remained accessible in Turkey on Friday.
The decision covers İmamoğlu’s YouTube channel, which has 787,000 subscribers, and the campaign office’s X account, followed by 222,000 users. It was issued on national security and public order grounds, but no specific video, post or other content prompting the action was publicly identified.
EngelliWeb, an internet censorship monitoring project run by Turkey’s Freedom of Expression Association, reported the decision. It said YouTube and X had not yet restricted access to the accounts for users in Turkey.
The order was issued under Article 8/A of Turkey’s internet law, which allows authorities to seek the urgent removal or blocking of online content on grounds including national security and public order. EngelliWeb did not identify the authority or court responsible for the latest decision.
Following the order, the campaign changed the X account’s handle from “CAOIletisim1” to “CAOIletisim11,” the monitoring group said.
İmamoğlu’s wife, Dilek Kaya İmamoğlu, called the decision an attempt to silence him and isolate him from his supporters.
“This is not a legal decision but an overt attempt to silence him,” she wrote on X. She said authorities were trying to prevent İmamoğlu from expressing his views and erect a barrier between him and the millions of people who support him.
The order is the latest in a series targeting social media accounts belonging to İmamoğlu and his presidential campaign.
An Istanbul court ordered İmamoğlu’s main X account, which had 9.7 million followers, blocked on April 24, 2025, citing national security and public order. X later withheld the account from users in Turkey.
A separate account used to address international audiences was ordered blocked the following month but remained accessible in Turkey.
Three additional orders were issued in November after İmamoğlu’s campaign repeatedly changed the handle of one of its X accounts. X blocked the account in Turkey on November 17.
A replacement campaign account was ordered blocked on March 12, 2026, but remained available. Its handle was later changed to “CAOIletisim1,” the account covered by the latest decision.
İmamoğlu has been jailed since March 2025 and is standing trial on corruption-related charges that he denies. He is the presidential candidate of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and is widely regarded as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s strongest political rival.
İmamoğlu and the CHP say the cases against him are politically motivated and intended to prevent him from challenging Erdoğan.
