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Elon Musk’s social media platform X has suspended several opposition-linked accounts in Turkey as widespread protests erupt against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government, as reported by Politico.
The move has sparked outrage among activists and free speech advocates, who accuse Musk of compromising his professed commitment to free speech in favor of maintaining X’s operations in the region.
Crackdown on Opposition Voices
The suspensions come in the wake of nationwide protests following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s main political rival. İmamoğlu was detained mere hours before his nomination as the presidential candidate for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). The government responded to the unrest by banning public gatherings for four days, but protests have continued to spread, especially among university students.
Observers report that the majority of the suspended accounts belonged to university-affiliated activists who were sharing protest information, including locations and safety measures. According to Yusuf Can, an analyst at the Wilson Center’s Middle East Program, these activists were grassroots organizers with relatively small but influential followings.
Some of these accounts appear to be geo-restricted, meaning they are only suspended in Turkey but remain accessible in other parts of the world. Activist Ömer Faruk Aslan, one of those affected, created a second account to bypass the censorship, stating that his original account was suspended after one of his tweets exceeded 6 million views.
Government Justification and Arrests
Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya confirmed that the government had identified 326 social media accounts allegedly inciting unrest, 72 of which were based abroad. Authorities arrested 54 individuals linked to these accounts as part of a broader crackdown. On Saturday, Yerlikaya reported that 343 people were arrested in a single night during the ongoing protests in cities including Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir.
The platform’s compliance with Turkish authorities is not unprecedented. In May 2023, X restricted access to numerous Turkish user posts at the request of the government, just ahead of national elections. At the time, Musk defended the decision by arguing that the alternative was a complete shutdown of Twitter in Turkey.
A similar situation occurred last October when X blocked access to certain Turkish news organizations following government requests. Despite claiming to object to the censorship, the company complied while stating it would pursue legal action in defense of Turkish users’ rights.
According to X’s transparency reports, the company adhered to 86% of Turkish government takedown requests in the second half of 2024—an increase from 68% in the first half of the year. This rate is slightly lower than the European Union’s 90% compliance rate, but Turkish authorities file takedown requests at a rate six times higher per capita than EU countries.
