Access to at least 147 X accounts was blocked in Turkey today over posts related to the country’s investment fund crisis, adding to 194 accounts restricted for similar content on Sep 24, according to the Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD).
The 147 identifiable accounts have a combined following of about 2.65 million, İFÖD said. Five have more than 100,000 followers, 17 have more than 50,000 and 36 have more than 10,000.
The accounts belong to people working in finance and capital markets, including economists, academics, technical analysts, traders and investors, as well as lawyers.
Among those affected are finance expert İris Cibre, technical analyst İbrahim Babadağı, stock market investor Gürdal Hançer, academic Rıdvan Özturgut, lawyer Tugay Bek and writer Hüseyin Edemir.
Many of the accounts blocked over posts about the fund crisis have also been made inaccessible in Turkey by X.
The investment fund crisis
The crisis began on Sep 17, when some investment funds that had built large positions in low-float stocks struggled to meet investors’ redemption requests.
The Capital Markets Board (SPK) subsequently suspended trading through the Turkish Electronic Fund Trading Platform (TEFAS) for funds managed by seven portfolio management companies and ordered 131 funds liquidated.
Turkey’s investment fund crisis in 10 questions: Phantom returns and a market meltdown
The SPK said funds managed by some portfolio companies had contributed to price movements in low-float stocks that could not be explained by the companies’ economic circumstances or financial figures.
The regulator had already tightened rules on Aug 28 covering fund concentration, related-party transactions, valuation methods and hedge fund operations.
Under Article 107 of Turkey’s Capital Markets Law, transactions intended to create false or misleading impressions about the price, price movements, supply or demand of capital market instruments can constitute market fraud.
Authorities have ordered the liquidation of funds with a combined volume of about 18.3 billion US dollars.
(VK)
