Elon Musk's 'free speech haven': X begins shutting down opposition accounts in Turkey

12punto FOREIGN NEWS

It has emerged that the social media platform X, owned by technology billionaire and advisor to US President Donald Trump Elon Musk, has blocked access to numerous accounts due to social unrest in Turkey. The US press pointed out that Musk had claimed he wanted to support free speech when he purchased the platform. While X has not shared any information regarding the closure of the accounts, initial findings indicate that at least 326 accounts have been affected by the practice. 

Yerlikaya stated that 72 of the closed accounts were foreign-based. He also reported that 54 suspects had been arrested in operations conducted by cyber security teams. In a statement made on Saturday, it was noted that 343 people were detained during protests reacting to the arrest of İmamoğlu. Yerlikaya announced that 326 accounts spreading hate speech on the X platform had been identified. It was stated that the arrests were carried out in cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, and Konya.

According to a report by Foreign Policy, Yusuf Can, coordinator of the Wilson Center’s Middle East Program, stated that the vast majority of the suspended accounts were used by university students and activists. Can stated that these accounts shared content such as protest information and gathering locations, and claimed that the accounts in question generally had tens of thousands of followers and could be described as 'grassroots activists'.

It was observed that some accounts were only blocked from access in Turkey, while remaining active in other countries. Activist Ömer Faruk Aslan announced that one of his accounts had been blocked by a court order and that he had opened a new account to avoid censorship. Aslan said that the tweets from his blocked account had reached 6 million views.

MUSK'S RESTRICTIONS TOWARD TURKEY

Legal regulations in Turkey allowed the government to request the removal of content from social media platforms. The social media law that came into effect in 2022 contains broad powers in this regard. The X platform complied with 86 percent of the Turkish government's content removal requests in the second half of 2024. This rate was at the 68 percent level in the first half of the year. While the compliance rate for requests in the European Union reached 90 percent, the number of removal requests per capita in Turkey was six times higher.

The X platform had previously decided to restrict access to content in Turkey. It was known that the platform complied with the Turkish government's requests prior to the 2023 presidential elections. Musk stated that there were options such as completely restricting the platform or blocking access to specific tweets. He also stated that the Turkish government's requests would be disclosed to the public.

According to Netblocks data, restrictions are being applied to access to platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube in Turkey, in addition to X.

Foreign Policy reported that the X platform has not yet responded to requests for comment.

News Source: 12punto