{"id":1750,"date":"2026-11-02T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifade.org.tr\/en\/?page_id=1750"},"modified":"2026-11-02T08:31:50","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T05:31:50","slug":"more-than-2000-x-accounts-blocked-in-two-months","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ifade.org.tr\/en\/press-releases-announcements\/more-than-2000-x-accounts-blocked-in-two-months\/","title":{"rendered":"Censorship Wave Continues in October: More Than 2,000 X Accounts Blocked in Two Months"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2 November 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Freedom of Expression Association (\u0130F\u00d6D) has found, through the monitoring carried out under its EngelliWeb project, that the blocking of social media accounts, which reached unprecedented levels in September, continued unabated in October. Between 1 and 31 October 2026, at least 867 X accounts were blocked from access<\/strong> under Articles 8 and 8\/A of Law No. 5651. Together with the 1,270 accounts blocked in September, the number of X accounts blocked in just two months has reached 2,137<\/strong>. According to our EngelliWeb 2025 report, more than 4,800 X accounts were blocked under Article 8\/A between 2015 and 2025. The number of accounts blocked in the last two months has thus reached almost half of the total accumulated over more than a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 795 accounts for which we were able to obtain follower data reach a combined audience of more than 21.5 million users. Of these, 170 had more than 10,000 followers, 28 more than 100,000 and 9 more than 500,000, and the four accounts with more than a million followers include those of Halk TV, T24 and \u0130rfan De\u011firmenci. The blocking targets the accounts with the widest reach to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, the blocking again spread across a broad spectrum, from journalists to news outlets, from political parties to academics, and from lawyers to economic and financial commentators. The blocking of accounts that posted about the fund crisis also continued. Many accounts were blocked, including those of former President of the Union of Judges and Prosecutors (YARSAV) and retired judge \u00d6mer Faruk Emina\u011fao\u011flu; journalists Alican Uluda\u011f, Birsen Altunta\u015f, Erk Acarer, Hamdi \u00c7elikba\u015f and Yi\u011fit Uzun; author and historian Dilek Zapt\u00e7\u0131o\u011flu; lawyer Lale Demirkazan; former Bo\u011fazi\u00e7i University academic Prof. Dr. Tuna Tu\u011fcu; economic commentators Emre \u015eirin, Faruk Baka\u00e7 and Ayhan Dadalo\u011flu; and the Women\u2019s Party (Kad\u0131n Partisi). The X account of the Workers\u2019 Party of T\u00fcrkiye (T\u0130P), with 582,000 followers, was blocked on 14 October. On 15 October, the blocked accounts also included that of journalist Bahad\u0131r \u00d6zg\u00fcr, who has 163,000 followers and was detained on allegations of \u201cviolating the confidentiality of an investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Renamed Accounts Blocked Again<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A defining feature of October was the pursuit of individuals and organisations that changed their usernames or opened new accounts. T24\u2019s X account, with 1.9 million followers, had been blocked by decision no 2026\/8894 of 29.09.2026 of the Istanbul 1st Criminal Judgeship of Peace. After T24 changed its username, the account was blocked again under its new name on 2 October. Following the appointment of a trustee to Halk TV and the suspension of its broadcasts, its X account with 3 million followers, its YouTube channel with 2.6 million subscribers, and its Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Telegram accounts were blocked under Article 8\/A on 14 October. Halk TV\u2019s X account, which had changed its username, was country withheld in T\u00fcrkiye on 21 October, and its YouTube channel was blocked again on 23 October, this time through its channel ID. Journalist Alican Uluda\u011f\u2019s new account, opened after his earlier account was blocked, met the same fate, as did Ayhan Dadalo\u011flu\u2019s new username. The account of Hikmet Adal, freedom of expression editor at Bianet, had been blocked by decision no 2026\/9064. After its username was changed, it was blocked again by decision no 2026\/10877 of 16.10.2026 of the Bak\u0131rk\u00f6y 5th<\/sup> Criminal Judgeship of Peace, this time in an investigation into \u201cpublicly disseminating misleading information\u201d. The same decision blocked access to 98 X accounts and to an entire website. The blocking no longer targets specific content but the very presence of individuals and organisations on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Censorship Monitors Also Targeted<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The details of the decision against EngelliWeb\u2019s X account came to light in October. By decision no 2026\/9064 of 30.09.2026, issued at the request of the Bak\u0131rk\u00f6y Chief Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, the Bak\u0131rk\u00f6y 7th<\/sup> Criminal Judgeship of Peace blocked access to more than 100 X accounts, including those of EngelliWeb, \u0130rfan De\u011firmenci, \u015eirin Payz\u0131n, Bianet, Hikmet Adal, Burak Acerakis, Erdal Sa\u011flam, Din\u00e7er G\u00f6k\u00e7e, Sarya Toprak, Esra Tokat and Furkan Karabay. The Judgeship held that the posts were \u201caimed at disrupting public order and may encourage the commission of offences\u201d and ordered the removal of their content. The X account of the Freedom of Expression Association was blocked on 5 October, along with at least 88 accounts blocked that same night, and country withheld in T\u00fcrkiye. The decision concerning the \u0130F\u00d6D account has still not been shared with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our objections against the decisions concerning the accounts of Yaman Akdeniz, EngelliWeb and Bianet have all been dismissed<\/strong>. We have lodged an individual application with the Constitutional Court on behalf of Yaman Akdeniz. Applications for EngelliWeb and Bianet will be lodged in the first week of November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

News and Criticism Concerning the Minister of Justice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By decision no 2026\/10177 of 10.10.2026, the Bak\u0131rk\u00f6y 1st<\/sup> Criminal Judgeship of Peace blocked news reports on \u00d6zg\u00fcr \u00d6zel\u2019s statements of March 2026 concerning the assets and properties of Minister of Justice Ak\u0131n G\u00fcrlek, and on T\u0130P MP Ahmet \u015e\u0131k\u2019s statements of September 2026 concerning capital market transactions and allegations about a residence. In October, the blocking also reached two X accounts with more than half a million followers belonging to an anonymous content creator who had criticised and satirised the Minister. Reports on allegations about the assets of public officials, like political satire, lie at the very heart of the public interest and of public debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 November: Access to Social Media Tied to Age Verification<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 1 November 2026, the amendments made to Additional Article 4 of Law No. 5651 by Law No. 7578 entered into force, together with the Cyber Security Presidency\u2019s Regulation on the Provision of Segregated Services Specific to Children and Age Verification by Social Network Providers, published in the Official Gazette of 10 October 2026. Children under 15 can no longer open social media accounts, and every user opening a new account, whatever their age, will be verified by means of an \u201cage verification token\u201d generated through the e-Government Gateway (e-Devlet). Existing accounts must also be verified by 31 March 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first platform responses have already emerged. Snapchat<\/strong> announced that from 1 November users in T\u00fcrkiye under 15 cannot create an account, while users under 18 may see a version of the app with fewer tabs. Twitch<\/strong> announced that from 29 October 2026 new users in T\u00fcrkiye under 15 cannot create an account, and that existing accounts in this age group will be disabled in February 2027. Dailymotion<\/strong> has paused the creation of new accounts from T\u00fcrkiye until it implements an age verification solution, and its app has been made temporarily unavailable on the App Store and Google Play in T\u00fcrkiye. As announced in our statement of 13 October, \u0130F\u00d6D will file an action before the Council of State seeking the annulment of the Regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaming Platforms Brought Under Oversight<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional Article 5, added to Law No. 5651 by Law No. 7578, also entered into force on the same day. Foreign-based gaming platforms with more than 100,000 daily accesses from T\u00fcrkiye are now required to appoint a representative in T\u00fcrkiye, to rate games according to age criteria, to remove content that has not been properly rated, and to provide parental control tools. Platforms that fail to comply face administrative fines followed by bandwidth throttling of 30 per cent and then up to 50 per cent. On 26 October, Google<\/strong> added gaming platform representation for Google Play to the activities of its company in T\u00fcrkiye. From 1 November, the gaming company Gameforge<\/strong> introduced age verification for adults (18+), through an external verification partner, for all users playing from a Turkish IP address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Games were already targeted by the criminal judgeships of peace before this regulation. According to EngelliWeb\u2019s findings, the number of game pages on Steam blocked from access in T\u00fcrkiye rose from 45 on 27 August and 255 on 25 September to 767 as of 28 October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion and Our Call<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wave that began in September continued in October, and the blocking has shifted from content to individuals and organisations themselves. From 1 November, access to social media has also been tied to State-run age and identity verification. In Art\u0131 Media GmbH<\/em> ([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. Even so, the provision is being used every month to silence an ever wider section of society. Accordingly, we call for the following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • The criminal judgeships of peace must refer Article 8\/A to the Constitutional Court under Article 152 of the Constitution when examining objections.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The wholesale blocking of entire accounts and websites must end.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • All decisions, starting with the decision concerning the \u0130F\u00d6D account, must be notified to those concerned together with their reasoning and made public.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    2 November 2026 The Freedom of Expression Association (\u0130F\u00d6D) has found, through the monitoring carried out under its EngelliWeb project, that the blocking of social media accounts, which reached unprecedented levels in September, continued unabated in October. Between 1 and 31 October 2026, at least 867 X accounts were blocked from access under Articles 8 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":87,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1750","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifade.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifade.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifade.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifade.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifade.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1750"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ifade.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1762,"href":"https:\/\/ifade.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1750\/revisions\/1762"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifade.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/87"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifade.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}