As part of the operations, access to 423 URLs belonging to 292 individuals has been blocked. The number of non-governmental organizations whose websites and social media accounts have been blocked stands at 96

ALİ SAFA KORKUT

The repercussions of the “My Family is Safe” operation, launched against LGBTI+ individuals, LGBTI+ associations and rights defenders, continue.

Justice Minister Akın Gürlek announced that, as part of the operations covering 15 provinces – notably Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Mersin and Aydın – legal proceedings had been initiated against 162 individuals, nine associations and 13 businesses.

To date, at least 81 people have been jailed, whilst digital media also formed part of the operation.

Indeed, as of 12 September, access to 423 URLs belonging to 292 individuals from civil society organizations, activists, newspapers, journalists, political parties, university clubs and youth organizations has been blocked.

Of these 291 individuals, 96 were from civil society organizations, 36 from university clubs/student societies, and 17 from newspapers/news websites and journalists.

The first of these decisions was issued on 12 September by the Istanbul 7th Criminal Judgeship of Peace. Under decision no. 2026/9559, 161 URLs were blocked.

This was followed on 13 September by decision no. 2026/9112 of the Bakırköy 4th Criminal Judgeship of Peace, which blocked a further 59 URLs.

On the same day, a ruling was also issued by the Mersin 4th Criminal Judgeship of Peace, and under ruling no. 2026/9598, access to 60 URLs was blocked.

The fourth and, for the time being, final blocking order was issued on 14 September by the Mersin 3rd Magistrates’ Court. Under the decision numbered 2026/9999, access to 110 URLs was blocked.

We have not yet been able to determine which court blocked the remaining 33 URLs.

Target: Social media

The vast majority of the blocked accounts were social media accounts.

Whilst access to a total of 406 social media accounts was blocked, X topped the list with 211 accounts in the breakdown by platform. X was followed by Instagram with 118 accounts, TikTok with 36 accounts, and Facebook with 23 accounts.

Among the blocked X accounts, six of those in the top 20 by number of followers belonged to journalists: İrfan Değirmenci, Şirin Payzın, Alex Crawford, Fırat Fıstık, Özlem Akarsu Çelik and İrem Afşin. Evrensel daily, Kaos GL and Gayety were the newspapers and news websites featured in the top 20.

32 accounts belonging to 17 different newspapers and journalists were blocked

However, those subject to access restrictions under the "My Family is Safe’" operation are not limited solely to these newspapers and/or journalists, nor to their social media accounts.

A total of 32 different social media accounts and domain names belonging to 17 different newspapers, journalists and news websites were included amongst those subject to access restrictions under this operation.

The newspapers and news websites include Evrensel, Sol Haber and Kaos GL; the journalists include Alex Crawford, Fırat Fıstık, İrem Afşin, İrfan Değirmenci, Özlem Akarsu Çelik, Şirin Payzın and Yıldız Tar.

The total number of followers across the social media accounts belonging to the newspapers, journalists and news websites that were blocked reached 3 million 84 thousand 651.

Total number of followers for blocked accounts: 11 million

Of the 406 social media accounts subject to an access ban, 332 had a combined total of 11 million 718 thousand 427 followers.

We were unable to determine the follower counts for 74 of the 406 accounts, as they were closed by their owners following the access ban decision.

The top 25 accounts by follower count across all social media platforms are as follows:

Access blocked to 14 domain names belonging to 12 different civil society organisations

Of the 14 domain names subject to access restriction orders, 13 belonged to 12 different civil society organizations, whilst one belonged to Velvele.

The Association Against Sexual Violence, Lambdaistanbul, the Pembe Hayat Association and SPoD were among these civil society organizations.

Kaos GL was the only civil society organization to have access blocked to two different domain names as part of the operation.

Even a Google form was blocked

The targets of the access-blocking orders issued as part of the operations were not limited to social media accounts and domain names.

The Google form created by the independent young women’s group Özgür Genç Kadın to collect applications from those wishing to join them; a video post titled “How was the Kaos GL magazine published? – Renkli Ekran Interviews: Ali Özbaş and Ali Erol”, and the “Links” page on Mor Dayanışma’s website, which featured various news items, statements and articles, were also subject to access blocking orders.