Since September, digital censorship has expanded both in scope and in its targets. Access restrictions, ranging from social media to websites, have also directly targeted the press’s presence in the digital sphere

ALİ SAFA KORKUT

As of September, the implementation of access blocks on digital media has increased noticeably. Whilst the restrictions have focused particularly on social media accounts on X, they have not been limited to this alone. Access restriction orders have been issued for a wide range of content, from social media posts to domain names, from web pages to e-newsletters, and even from Google Forms to WhatsApp channels.

Members of the press have also been targeted by these restriction orders, with access blocks on the social media accounts and domain names of numerous newspapers, television channels, news websites, news agencies and journalists.

The decisions taken over a period of approximately two months demonstrate that access restrictions have expanded in terms of both number and scope. Data on which digital content was targeted during this period and the platforms where the restrictions were most concentrated reveal more clearly the extent to which censorship in the digital sphere has reached.

Ninety-eight percent of the blocked items were social media accounts

Indeed, between 1 September and 23 October, access blocking orders were issued for a total of 2,133 URLs, comprising social media accounts, social media posts, domain names, Google Forms, web pages, WhatsApp channels, Google Docs and e-newsletters.

Of these URLs, 1,825 were blocked in September, whilst 308 were blocked in October. 

Of the 2,133 URLs, 2,081 were social media accounts, followed by 30 social media posts and 16 domain names.

In terms of the number of accounts, the platform most affected by access restrictions was X.

This is because 1,678 of the 2,081 blocked social media accounts were X accounts. This accounts for 80 percent of the blocked accounts, with Instagram following with 239 accounts and Facebook with 84.

Four LinkedIn accounts were also among those subject to access restrictions during this period.

The total number of followers across these accounts exceeded 50 million

The total number of followers for the social media accounts subject to access restrictions was 52,328,761.

Among these, the X account with the highest number of followers was “@degirmencirfan,” belonging to journalist İrfan Değirmenci, with 3,112,000 followers.

It was followed by Halk TV’s X and YouTube accounts, whilst nine of the top 20 accounts by follower count belonged to newspapers, television channels, news websites, agencies and journalists.

Bakırköy court blocked one in every three restricted URLs

The authority that issued the most access blocking orders in terms of number of URLs was the Bakırköy 7th Criminal Judgeship of Peace. The court ordered the blocking of a total of 459 URLs, whilst in second place was the Bakırköy 6th Criminal Judgeship of Peace with 260 URLs. 

Four of the eight courts that issued blocking orders for these URLs were based in Bakırköy. The Bakırköy judgeships issued access blocking orders for a total of 885 URLs. This equates to almost one in every three URLs. 

It could not be determined who issued the blocking orders for 936 URLs.

The press in the crosshairs: access blocked to 98 social media accounts and domain names 

The press also featured prominently amongst those subject to access blocking between 1 September and 23 October.

During this period, access blocking orders were issued for at least 98 social media accounts and domain names belonging to 63 different media organizations and journalists. Of these, 94 were social media accounts and four were domain names. 

The total number of followers for these accounts stood at 21,794,904. This accounts for almost half of the total number of followers across all blocked social media accounts. Moreover, this figure was reached with the follower counts of just 89 accounts. The follower counts for five accounts could not be determined as they had been closed by their owners.

The 20 accounts with the highest number of followers among those subject to blocking orders are as follows: