Turkish authorities have ordered access blocked to the official X account of the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP), which has 582,000 followers, sparking criticism from opposition lawmakers amid a growing crackdown on social media accounts.
The Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD), a Turkish digital rights group, said the party’s account, @tipgenelmerkez, was targeted under Article 8/A of Turkey’s Internet Law No. 5651. X had not yet implemented the order by making the account unavailable to users in Turkey when the decision was announced.
It was not immediately clear which court or authority had issued the order or what specific grounds had been cited.
TİP, a left-wing opposition party represented in Turkey’s parliament, said blocking orders had been issued for both its national headquarters’ account and that of its İstanbul provincial branch.
The party said it believed the restrictions were imposed because of its statements and broadcasts exposing alleged wrongdoing involving investment funds, a scandal that has attracted widespread attention in Turkey.
TİP leader Erkan Baş condemned the blocking orders in a post on X, calling them an attack on democratic politics and saying the party would continue expressing its views in public and in parliament.
Baş described the restrictions as an act of fascism and said the party would not accept them. He also promised that those responsible for the decisions would eventually be held accountable in court.
TİP İstanbul lawmaker Ahmet Şık said the blocking order followed the publication of a video concerning alleged wrongdoing involving investment funds.
Şık criticized Justice Minister Akın Gürlek, accusing him of attempting to suppress damaging information and questioned him about property records he alleged had been targeted for deletion.
The lawmaker did not provide evidence that Gürlek had personally ordered the restrictions, and the precise reason for the blocking decisions remained unclear.
Opposition lawmaker Burhanettin Bulut, who represents the southern province of Adana in parliament, also criticized the restrictions on X, linking them to the state takeover of the pro-opposition Halk TV broadcaster earlier Wednesday.
“Censorship is a sign of fear, and repression is a sign of desperation,” Bulut said, adding that authorities would not succeed in preventing the public from obtaining information.
The blocking order comes amid an investigation into alleged wrongdoing involving investment funds managed by several Turkish portfolio management companies. The country’s Capital Markets Board ordered the liquidation of 131 investment funds belonging to seven portfolio management companies on September 17.
Restrictions have also targeted news reports and social media posts concerning the investigation. On October 11 access was blocked to three articles published by the Bianet news outlet concerning parliamentary questions submitted by Şık about alleged political and bureaucratic connections to the investment fund scandal.
Article 8/A of Turkey’s Internet Law allows authorities to order online content removed or access blocked on grounds including national security, public order, public safety, public health and the prevention of crime.
The latest order comes amid a series of restrictions on social media accounts belonging to journalists, opposition figures, academics, economists and civil society organizations.
According to İFÖD, Turkish authorities ordered access blocked to at least 1,270 X accounts in September alone, with a combined following of more than 35 million. X subsequently made approximately 90 percent of those accounts unavailable to users in Turkey.
İFÖD itself became a target of the restrictions on October 5, when authorities ordered access blocked to its official X account. The association’s EngelliWeb project, which monitors online censorship in Turkey, had also been targeted earlier that month.
This article is republished from the Stockholm Center for Freedom.
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