Social media platform X says it is challenging block of jailed Istanbul mayor's account

Social media platform X says it is challenging block of jailed Istanbul mayor's account Alex MacDonald Scepticism greets site's announcement that it is challenging ban on Ekrem Imamoglu's presidential candidacy account, considering it has already blocked hundreds of opposition accounts in Turkey Supporters hold up their mobiles during a protest marking one year since the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in Istanbul on 18 March (AFP/Yasin Akgul) An announcement by X that it is challenging a request to ban imprisoned Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu's presidential candidacy account in Turkeyhas been met with scepticism by digital campaigners. The account, created to support Imamoglu's candidacy for the next presidential election, was first blocked in Turkey late last month following a government request. In a poston X on Wednesday, the company said Turkish laws "force" them to comply with the order last week, at risk of Turkey's Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) "throttling" the site's access in the country. “Although Turkey’s laws force us to comply with the order, we are challenging the order in court and, in the spirit of full transparency, are sharing the court order,” it said, postinga copy. Imamoglu's main X account, which had nearly 10 million followers, was blocked in Turkey in May 2025 under a similar order from the government, which X also said it had challenged in the courts. Meta and YouTube have also complied with requests from the Turkish government to block accounts and content associated with Imamoglu. Yaman Akdeniz, founder of Turkish freedom of expression organisation IFOD, said he was sceptical of the willingness of the site, owned by self-proclaimed "free speech absolutist" Elon Musk, to actually challenge the Turkish authorities. middleeasteye.net Elon Musk reiterates claim that UK is on verge of 'reckoning' due to Muslim immigration "It is true to say that every now and again they appeal against decisions and lodge a few applications with the Constitutional Court - however, this is very selective and X chooses not to provide further details about the judicial challenges," he told Middle East Eye. Accordingto the most recent X transparency report, the company received 11,107 removal requests from Turkey between July and December 2024 and took action in 86 percent of cases. A Washington Post reviewof past disclosure data found the social media site acted on 71 percent of legal requests it received to remove content in the first half of 2024, up 20 percent from its previous reported figure in 2021. The report said X had taken action in 68 percent of the cases requested by Turkey, which amounted to 9,364 requests in the first half of 2024. "I must say Meta and the others are no different as they have all become the long arm of the Turkish law enforcement mechanism," said Akdeniz. Saudi dissident blocks Turkey is not the only country to which X has responded to takedown requests for accounts belonging to government critics and dissidents. The Guardian revealedon Tuesday that X had blocked the accounts of a number of prominent critics of the kingdom, including human rights campaigner Yahya Assiri and activist Abdullah Alaoudh, son of imprisoned cleric Salman al-Ouda. It came on the heels of similar bans on Snapchat, Meta and Instagram over claims from the Saudi au