2022 Twitter Access Block Report released to the public

The 'The Bird is Dead Baby: 2022 Twitter Access Block Report', which shows how many Twitter accounts and tweets were blocked as a result of court orders in 2022, has been shared with the public.

According to the report prepared by journalist Ali Safa Korkut, access to at least 4,427 Twitter URLs was blocked in 2022, including 487 Twitter accounts and 3,940 tweets.

This figure was reached through 393 court orders.

The report was prepared within the scope of the project "Strengthening the Quality of Journalism and Independent Media in the Western Balkans and Turkey II", which is carried out by the Journalists Association with financial support from the European Union.

TWEETS ABOUT PUBLIC OFFICIALS WERE BLOCKED THE MOST

The report also provided a breakdown of the 3,940 blocked tweets by subject. Accordingly, tweets containing allegations of misconduct by public officials and criticisms directed at them ranked first.

In 2022, a total of 2,106 tweets concerning public officials were blocked. These access block decisions were issued upon the requests of the public officials mentioned in the tweets in question.

ERSOY RANKED AT THE TOP

While the figure of 2,106 was reached through 17 court orders, six of these 17 orders were issued for tweets about Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy. With these six orders, 43 tweets about Ersoy were blocked. Thus, Ersoy ranked at the top among public officials in terms of the number of decisions.

The decision in the "public officials" category that resulted in the highest number of blocked tweets was the one issued for tweets about a police officer serving in the Ankara Police Department Anti-Terrorism (TEM) Branch.

1,973 tweets regarding allegations that the police officer in question tortured detained citizens were blocked by the decision of the Ankara 6th Criminal Judgeship of Peace. With the decision dated December 23, 2022, an access block order was also issued for 18 Twitter accounts.

PTT HAD 118 TWEETS BLOCKED

Following tweets about public officials, tweets alleged to contain content related to "adult, gambling, fraud, financial sites and/or terrorism" came next (1,126), followed by posts targeting ordinary citizens (316) and tweets about public institutions (118).

All 118 tweets about public institutions that were blocked were issued upon the request of the General Directorate of Post and Telegraph Organization (PTT). This is because all of the relevant tweets were criticizing the cargo service provided by PTT. PTT obtained 20 different court orders in 2022 to have these tweets blocked.

THREE OF THE FIVE JUDGESHIPS THAT BLOCKED THE MOST TWEETS ARE FROM ANKARA

When looking at the distribution of the authorities that blocked the most tweets, three criminal judgeships of peace from Ankara were in the top five.

The Ankara 6th Criminal Judgeship of Peace ranked first with 2,024 tweets, followed by the Ankara 3rd Criminal Judgeship of Peace with 153 tweets and the Ardahan Criminal Judgeship of Peace with 140 tweets.

The vast majority of the tweets blocked by judgeships in Ankara and Istanbul were posts containing various allegations about public officials and companies.

Tweets in decisions issued by judgeships in provinces such as Aydın, Ardahan, Burdur, Bursa, Erzurum, Eskişehir, Kastamonu, and Uşak were blocked on the grounds that they contained "terrorist organization propaganda."

'VIOLATION OF PERSONAL RIGHTS' CITED AS REASON

When looking at the reasons for blocking the tweets, that is, their legal basis, "violation of personal rights" ranked first.

In 2022, 2,909 tweets were blocked based on this article. This means that almost three out of every four tweets were blocked for this reason.

In second place was "protection of national security and public order" with 1,031 tweets.

ACCESS BLOCK ON 487 TWITTER ACCOUNTS

The number of Twitter accounts that were blocked in 2022 was at least 487.

In the breakdown of these 487 accounts by subject, accounts alleged to have published content related to "adult, gambling, fraud, financial sites and/or terrorism" ranked first with 467. They were followed by accounts alleged to have published content about public officials with 19, and an account alleged to have published content targeting ordinary citizens.

LEGAL BASIS FOR BLOCKED ACCOUNTS

When looking at the reasons for blocking the accounts, that is, their legal basis, it was seen that "protection of national security and public order", as stated in Article 8/A of Law No. 5651, ranked first.

In 2022, 465 accounts were blocked based on this article.

In second place was the violation of "personal rights" as stated in Article 9 of Law No. 5651. The number of accounts blocked based on this article in 2022 was 22.

ETHA EXAMPLE: ACCESS BLOCK WITH THREE DIFFERENT DECISIONS

Among the Twitter accounts blocked in 2022 on the grounds of "protection of national security and public order" were the official accounts of newspapers/news agencies where they share their news.

The Twitter account of Etkin News Agency (ETHA) was one of the news source accounts closed for this reason.

ETHA's account with the username "@etkinhaberetha" was blocked by the decision of the Erzurum 1st Criminal Judgeship of Peace dated May 16, 2022.

Following this block, ETHA opened a new account with the username "@EthaEtkin" to share its news. However, this account of the agency was also blocked by the decision of the Antalya 2nd Criminal Judgeship of Peace dated October 28.

It did not end there. The agency's account with the username "@EthaEtkin", which was blocked by the Antalya 2nd Criminal Judgeship of Peace on October 28, was blocked once again by the decision of the Hatay 1st Criminal Judgeship of Peace dated December 20, despite already being blocked.

Twitter accounts belonging to ETHA with two different usernames were blocked twice with three different decisions.