Access to jailed Istanbul mayor's X account blocked

The Sun

08-05-2025

ISTANBUL: Turkish authorities on Thursday blocked access to the social media account of Istanbul's jailed opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who has nearly 10 million followers on X.
Imamoglu, who was detained on March 19 on corruption charges he strongly denies, is seen as the biggest rival to longtime leader President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The arrest could stop Imamoglu taking part in presidential elections scheduled for 2028.
It was not possible to access to his X account on Thursday morning. A message read: 'Account Withheld -- @ekrem_imamoglu has been withheld in TR (Turkey) in response to a legal demand.'
A spokesperson for the Istanbul municipality confirmed access to the account was blocked, without giving further details.
Watchdog group EngelliWeb, which reports Internet censorship and blocked web sites in Turkey, said on X that access to Imamoglu's account had been blocked on national security grounds.
The account 'has been blocked under Article 8/A of Law No. 5651, on the grounds of protecting national security and public order, and has been made invisible in Turkey by X', it said.
Yaman Akdeniz, a law professor and head of Turkey's Freedom of Expression Association (IFOD), said the details of the blocking order had not been revealed yet, but added: 'Through our EngelliWeb project we detected the existence of an article 8/A order.'
'This means that the arbitrary order was issued to protect national security and public order. Unfortunately, I am not surprised as hundreds of accounts have been subject to such orders since Imamoglu's arrest,' he told AFP.
'X has officially become the long arm of the Turkish law enforcement agencies,' he said.
Mass rally
Lawyer Gonenc Gurkaynak said he would object to the court order.
'Regarding the court decision imposing an access restriction on Mr Ekrem Imamoglu's account on X, upon X's request and in my capacity as X's independent attorney, I will be filing an objection application this morning at the relevant court, comprehensively presenting all legal grounds for our objections on this matter,' he said on his social media account.
In a show of solidarity with Imamoglu, some X users replaced their profile pictures with the Istanbul mayor's.
On his last message on X, Imamoglu, who is jailed in Silivri prison on the outskirts of Istanbul, had urged his supporters to join a protest rally held Wednesday, which was called by his CHP party.
Tens of thousands of people took part in the Istanbul rally, one of the biggest in recent weeks.
In the days after Imamoglu's arrest, tens of thousands of people took part in near-daily protests. But numbers had dwindled in recent weeks.
Wednesday's protest was held outside Istanbul University, which had stripped Imamoglu of his degree the day before his arrest.