Turkish authorities banned nearly one million websites between 2007-2023

Duvar English

As of December 2023, Turkish authorities have blocked access to approximately one million websites and domain names, according to the Freedom of Expression Association's Engelliweb 2023 report, prepared by Yaman Akdeniz and Ozan Güven. 

In 2023 alone, a total of 240,857 domain names were blocked from access in Turkey. By the end of 2023, a total of 953,415 websites and domain names were restricted through 821,285 different rulings issued by 833 various institutions and courts in all times.

According to the report, while the number of blocked websites was four in 2006, this number increased 60,000 times in 2023.

Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) took the lead among the institutions that took the most access ban decisions with 202,639 websites in 2023.

In second place was the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) with 33,000 decisions. Turkish government in 2022 authorized the TFF to block access to websites.

According to the report, Hürriyet topped the list with 412 news articles being blocked, followed by Sondakika.com with 353, Sabah with 343, Haberler.com with 303, and Cumhuriyet with 289 blocked articles.

Gazete Duvar ranked 19th with 155 blocked URL addresses in 2023. Between 2014 and 2023, access to a total of 251 news articles of Duvar was blocked.

Criminal courts of peace issued numerous access ban orders, especially after the 2023 earthquakes and before and after the 2023 General Election in May.

The report found that President Recep Erdoğan made at least 20 requests for access blocking and content removal in 2023. The majority of these requests included YouTube videos, posts on platforms such as X and Ekşi Sözlük, but he also made requests for news about him or news that mentioned his name.

In February 2023 alone, Erdoğan requested the removal of 71 URLs, including news from Diken, BirGün, Cumhuriyet and other media sources, as well as posts on X and Ekşi Sözlük.

As in previous years, all applications made to the criminal courts of peace by President Erdoğan's son Bilal Erdoğan alleging violation of his personal rights were accepted.

Additionally, in 2023, courts have implemented the practice of "chain" bans in many rulings, blocking both the original news and many other articles in other news outlets that quoted it.

The web page on which the Freedom of Expression Association publishes announcements about more than 500 blocked news and websites within the scope of the EngelliWeb project was also completely blocked from access with the decision of the Rize Criminal Court of Peace dated March 2023 on the grounds of “violation of personal rights.”