Turkey blocks access to 126 X accounts, including news outlets

Turkish authorities have blocked access to 126 X accounts, including news channels, citing "national security and public order protection" as the reason in a single decision.

Wednesday February 12 2025 12:14 am

Duvar English

The Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD) on Feb. 11 announced that 126 X (formerly known as Twitter) accounts were blocked by order of the President of the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) at the request of the police department.

EGM'nin talebiyle, 126 X hesabı, BTK Başkanı tarafından erişime engellendi. Erişim engeli, millî güvenlik ve kamu düzeninin korunması gerekçesiyle alındı ve Ankara 4. Sulh Ceza Hakimliğinin 5 Şubat 2025 tarihli ve 2025/1794 sayılı kararıyla onaylandı. https://t.co/yXjgmv1RyD pic.twitter.com/uflhpuFPZ8
— EngelliWeb (@engelliweb) February 10, 2025

According to the İFÖD, the access ban was approved by a single decision of the Ankara 4th Criminal Judgeship of Peace on Feb. 5.

The decision, reportedly taken on the grounds of "protecting national security and public order," includes many news outlets and journalists.

Among the blocked accounts were news outlet Artı Gerçek, Artı Gerçek columnist Hayko Bağdat, Mezopotamya News Agency (MA), Jin News, Yeni Yaşam newspaper, and independent journalist Metin Cihan.

Among the blocked accounts are those that have been inactive since 2015 and were previously restricted by court orders between 2016 and 2017 under the previous Twitter (twitter.com) domain.

However, at that time, Twitter management did not remove or make these accounts invisible. The new ruling resulted in these accounts being made invisible to users from Turkey by X.

Topics X/Twitter freedom of expression Information and Communication Technologies Authority BTK social media bans