Turkey’s media watchdog, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), has launched an investigation into an animated series streaming on Amazon Prime Video due to its “indecent content that provoked a public outcry,” Turkish Minute reported on Wednesday, citing the Demirören News Agency (DHA).
RTÜK President Ebubekir Şahin on Wednesday announced on X the investigation into Prime Video’s animated series “Sausage Party: Foodtopia.”
“This perverted hegemony that targets the beliefs and cultural values that make our society strong and … make us who we are is also targeting our youth … through the media,” Şahin said, adding that the animated series in Prime Video’s Turkey catalog has provoked a reaction from Turks with its “indecent content.”
The investigation was launched after a man complained that the eight-episode animated series’ sexually explicit scenes would corrupt his child’s morals.
The series, which stands out for its sexually explicit jokes, is not included in Prime Video’s children’s catalog, according to local media reports.
The development comes a week after Turkey imposed a ban on access to Wattpad, a popular digital publishing platform with over 90 million monthly users worldwide.
The ban on Wattpad was not the first time the Turkish government has blocked access to popular social media platforms. X, formerly Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have all been subjected to restrictions. Most recently, Ekşi Sözlük, one of the country’s most popular social media websites, and popular streaming platform Twitch were blocked by Turkey’s Telecommunications Authority (BTK).
Turkey, where internet freedom has steadily declined over the past decade, ranks among the “not free” countries concerning online freedoms, according to a report released by the US-based nonprofit Freedom House in October.
The Free Web Turkey 2023 Internet Censorship Report also showed recently that Turkey banned access to 219,059 URLs, including 197,907 domain names, 14,680 news articles, 5,641 social media posts and 743 social media accounts, in 2023. The news articles predominantly cover allegations of corruption and misconduct often implicating public officials and individuals with close ties to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
