Turkey blocked access to a total of 4,427 X (formerly Twitter) URLs in 2022, according to a report by Free Web Turkey, monitoring internet censorship in the country.
Out of these, 487 were user accounts, and 3,940 were posts. These restrictions were implemented through 393 different court decisions.
Among the blocked posts, 2,106 were related to allegations of irregularities concerning public officials. These blocking decisions came from 17 court rulings, with 6 of them initiated upon requests from Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy.
Furthermore, 1,973 posts were linked to allegations of a counter-terrorism police officer in Ankara torturing citizens. Correspondingly, access to 18 X accounts was also ordered to be restricted on the same grounds.
A total of 1,126 posts on topics such as "adult content, gambling, fraud, financial websites, and/or terrorism," 316 posts targeting individuals, and 118 posts related to public institutions were blocked.
All 118 tweets related to public institutions that were restricted from access were done so upon the request of the General Directorate of the Turkish Post and Telegraph Organization (PTT). This was because these tweets criticized the postal services provided by PTT. The organization secured 20 different court decisions in 2022 to block access to these tweets.
“Violation of personal rights”
Analyzing the reasons for blocking tweets, the violation of "personal rights" ranked first in 2022. A total of 2,909 tweets were blocked based on this provision, indicating that almost three out of every four tweets were restricted for this reason.
Some 1,031 tweets were restricted on the grounds of "protecting national security and public order."
Examining the legal basis for the blocking of 487 accounts, the top reason was found to be the provision stated in Article 8/A of Law No. 5651, which pertains to "protecting national security and public order." In 2022, 465 accounts were restricted based on this provision.
The second most common reason was the violation of "personal rights" stated in Article 9 of Law No. 5651. The number of accounts subjected to access restrictions under this provision in 2022 was 22.
Blocking of news agency account
Notably, among the X accounts blocked in 2022 under the justification of "protecting national security and public order," there were official accounts of newspapers/news agencies sharing their news. The X account of Etkin News Agency (ETHA) became one of the news source accounts closed for this reason.
The ETHA account with the username "@etkinhaberetha" was restricted from access with the decision of the Erzurum 1st Criminal Peace Judgeship dated May 16, 2022.
Following this restriction, ETHA opened a new account with the username "@EthaEtkin" to share its news. However, this account was also restricted from access with the decision of the Antalya 2nd Criminal Peace Judgeship dated October 28.
Furthermore, the X account with the two different usernames belonging to ETHA was restricted from access twice with three different decisions, even though it was already blocked by the decision of the Hatay 1st Criminal Peace Judgeship dated December 20 while using the username "@EthaEtkin." (HA/VK)
