2 October 2026
The Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD) learned, while preparing this statement, that the X account of EngelliWeb (@engelliweb), which has documented Internet censorship in Türkiye since 2008, has itself been blocked from access and country withheld in Türkiye by X. According to the notification sent by X on 1 October 2026 at 17:14, the blocking is based on a decision issued under Article 8/A of Law No. 5651 and transmitted to X by the Cyber Security Presidency (“SGB”). The decision itself has not been shared with us. Numerous decisions targeting EngelliWeb’s posts had previously been forwarded to İFÖD. This time, the account through which we record censorship has itself been targeted.
Our EngelliWeb monitoring shows that the blocking of social media accounts, which intensified throughout the year, reached unprecedented levels in September. Between 1 and 30 September 2026 alone, at least 1,270 X accounts were blocked from access under Articles 8 and 8/A of Law No. 5651, and 90% of these accounts were country withheld in Türkiye by X. As documented in our EngelliWeb 2025 report, the number of X accounts blocked under Article 8/A in the whole of 2025, a year defined by the 19 March process, was 995. The number of accounts blocked in a single month has thus surpassed the total for last year, which we described as a “digital lockdown”. 941 of the blockings took place in the second half of the month.
The blocking spread across a very broad spectrum, from journalists to news outlets, from LGBTIQ+ organisations and rights defenders to women’s organisations, from human rights organisations to academics and economists, and to diverse political and religious circles. While the accounts of LGBTIQ+ organisations, rights defenders and activists were targeted in operations dubbed “Ailem Güvende” (“My Family Is Safe”), the accounts of many adult content creators were blocked on grounds of “obscenity”. The blocking also reached accounts that posted about the fund crisis and the investigation into the murder of Narin Güran. Other accounts were blocked over alleged “disinformation”, “national security”, “manipulation” and Article 217/A of the Turkish Penal Code, as well as Israeli propaganda, “FETÖ affiliation”, the Tevhid circle, and the Furkan Movement and Alihan Kuriş investigations.
The 1,227 accounts for which follower data was available have a combined following of more than 35 million. Of these, 362 had more than 10,000 followers, 70 more than 100,000 and 10 more than 500,000.
The country withheld accounts include those of journalists Erk Acarer, Naz Yavuzarslan, Canan Kaya, Meral Danyıldız, Özlem Akarsu Çelik, Fırat Fıstık and İrem Afşin; Yaman Akdeniz, one of the founders of the Freedom of Expression Association; and the news outlets Kısa Dalga, soL Haber, Mezopotamya Ajansı, JinNews, Velvele and Kaos GL Haber. The accounts of economists Prof. Dr. Veysel Ulusoy, İnan Mutlu and Emre Şirin met the same fate. The list also includes the Kaos GL Association, Amnesty International Türkiye, the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), Academics for Peace, the We Will Stop Femicide Platform, the Federation of Women Associations of Türkiye, the Women’s Coalition, the Psychiatric Association of Türkiye, the Ali İsmail Korkmaz Foundation (ALİKEV), the LGBTI+ Bureau of the Workers’ Party of Türkiye (TİP) and Umut-Sen, as well as Başaran Aksu, Levent Pişkin and author Haluk Hepkon.
September Decisions: Unreasoned, Wholesale and Invisible
The decisions are neither made public nor notified to account holders. From the nine September decisions and one request letter we obtained, we could identify the underlying decision for only 115 of the 1,270 accounts. The legal basis for the remaining 1,155 accounts is unknown.
By decision no 2026/9559 of 12.09.2026, issued within investigation no 2026/143015 of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Istanbul 7th Criminal Judgeship of Peace blocked access to the websites and social media accounts of 73 organisations and individuals, including Kaos GL, SPoD, Pembe Hayat, Lambdaistanbul, Pride Week committees and university LGBTIQ+ groups, a total of 179 addresses. Beyond quoting the law and a single template sentence, the decision contains no reasoning. In Mersin, upon a direct application by the Mersin Provincial Directorate of Security, the Mersin 3rd Criminal Judgeship of Peace, by decision no 2026/9999 of 14.09.2026, blocked access to “all pages” of accounts including those of Evrensel, the TİP LGBTI+ Bureau, Academics for Peace, Amnesty International Türkiye, Umut-Sen and ALİKEV. In an “obscenity” investigation by the Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office under Article 226/2 of the Turkish Penal Code, Kaos GL Haber was targeted by decision no 2026/9112 of 13.09.2026 of the Bakırköy 4th Criminal Judgeship of Peace, and the Psychiatric Association of Türkiye and the Kaos GL Association by the Prosecutor’s Office’s second request of 16.09.2026.
By decision no 2026/8894 of 29.09.2026, issued within the same investigation no 2026/143015 of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Istanbul 1st Criminal Judgeship of Peace blocked access to the entire T24 website and its X account, on the grounds that the site had published “118 so-called news items in approximately one year” and that these publications were “aimed at weakening the Turkish family structure”. The wholesale blocking of a national news website on account of 118 items disregards the principles of URL-based blocking and proportionality.
Conclusion and Our Call
In Artı Media GmbH ([Plenary], no. 2019/40078, 14.09.2023), the Constitutional Court found that Article 8/A provides no safeguards against arbitrary interference and that the violation stems directly from the law itself. September demonstrates that this structural problem has turned into a regime of mass censorship. İFÖD calls on the criminal judgeships of peace to refer Article 8/A to the Constitutional Court under Article 152 of the Constitution when examining objections. We also call for the immediate lifting of the blocking imposed on LGBTIQ+ organisations, rights defenders, professional associations and T24 under the “Ailem Güvende” operations, an end to the wholesale blocking of entire accounts and websites, and the notification and publication of all decisions with their reasoning. The decision concerning the EngelliWeb account must be disclosed immediately and the blocking lifted. Once we obtain the decision, we will object and seek the referral of Article 8/A to the Constitutional Court.