In the first transparency report issued under CEO Elon Musk’s ownership, X (formerly Twitter) revealed that Turkey ranked second only to Japan in government requests for content removal during the first half of 2024, Turkish Minute reported.
The report shows that X received 9,364 requests from Turkey, with the company acting on 68 percent of them, marking a significant rise in the platform’s compliance with government demands compared to previous years.
The findings come as a stark contradiction to Musk’s self-proclaimed commitment to “free speech absolutism” and his earlier criticism of government censorship.
Since Musk took control of Twitter in 2022, renaming it X, the platform has seen a notable shift in its content moderation policies, particularly in countries known for restrictive media environments like Turkey, where authorities have tightened their grip on social media.
X’s compliance with Turkish government requests represents a continuation of a worrying trend.
In the first half of 2024, X approved 71 percent of the total legal requests it received globally to remove or restrict content — up from 51 percent in 2021, and more than double the compliance rate in 2020.
Japan led the requests, with 46,648 submissions, while Turkey, South Korea and the European Union also ranked high in content removal demands. X acted on 73 percent of South Korea’s requests and 80 percent of those submitted by the European Union.
The report also reveals that, worldwide, X removed more than 10.6 million posts and suspended over 5.3 million accounts between January and June 2024.
While some of these actions were aimed at issues such as child safety and platform manipulation, the rising number of takedown requests from governments — especially those with a history of censorship — paints a troubling picture of X’s approach to freedom of expression.
Turkey, under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has become notorious for its control over digital platforms, often using legal measures to silence critics, especially around sensitive political moments.
In recent years, the Turkish government has passed sweeping laws requiring social media platforms to appoint local representatives and comply with court orders to block or remove content deemed illegal by Turkish authorities. Failure to comply with these demands can result in bandwidth reduction, heavy fines or outright bans.
In May 2023, during the run-up to the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections, X blocked several prominent accounts in Turkey following threats from the Turkish government to throttle the platform’s services if it did not comply with a court order.
The blocked accounts included Kurdish businessman Muhammed Yakut and exiled journalist Cevheri Güven, both vocal critics of Erdoğan.
Musk defended the decision at the time, stating that the platform had no choice but to comply to remain operational in Turkey.
Critics, however, argued that the timing of the block — just a day before the election — significantly stifled dissenting voices and potentially influenced the election’s outcome.
This incident, and the broader compliance trend revealed in the transparency report, suggests that X under Musk’s leadership has become more willing to adhere to the demands of authoritarian regimes, in contrast to Musk’s earlier declarations of resisting censorship.
While Musk has publicly criticized governments like India and Australia for censorship demands, his platform’s actions tell a different story.
One of the most concerning aspects of the report is the lack of detailed information and transparency compared to previous reports.
Under its previous leadership, Twitter had a longstanding practice of publishing transparency reports every six months, detailing its responses to government requests for information and content removal.
This practice was halted when Musk took control in 2022, as part of a broader effort to limit access to internal data. The new report, while marking a return to some degree of transparency, provides significantly less detail than its predecessors.
For example, the report includes the number of accounts suspended and posts removed but offers little context about why certain decisions were made or whether X objected to any government requests.
In the case of Turkey, the report notes that X complied with 68 percent of the country’s removal requests, but it does not provide specific details about the nature of the content that was targeted.
Given Turkey’s history of using legal threats to stifle dissent, this lack of transparency is particularly concerning.
The rising compliance with government censorship demands on X has significant implications for freedom of expression, particularly in countries like Turkey, where media freedom is already under severe pressure.
According to Freedom House, Turkey is ranked “not free” in its annual Freedom in the World report, with the government exerting increasing control over online sources of news and information.
X’s growing willingness to comply with Turkish authorities risks further eroding the already limited space for independent and critical voices in the country.
While Musk has positioned himself as a champion of free speech, the reality is that X has become more compliant with government censorship demands, particularly in countries like Turkey, where the stakes for free expression are high.
