In Turkey, access to social media platforms such as X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and some messaging apps including WhatsApp was disrupted.
Following the calls against the dismissal of CHP’s Istanbul provincial administration and the appointment of a trustee in its place, Istanbul Governorate banned protests and events in 6 districts. Immediately after these developments, social media users reported access problems.
NetBlocks confirmed that access to platforms such as X, Instagram, YouTube and WhatsApp were throttled in Turkey. The Freedom of Expression Association’s “Engelli Web” initiative also announced that applications such as Facebook, TikTok, Telegram and Signal were also affected by the bandwidth throttling.
There was no official statement from the BTK.
CHP MP Ali Gökçek brought the bandwidth throttling to the parliamentary agenda, stating that it was “an open censorship tool” and had no legal basis. Gökçek said the government has systematically used band narrowing to suppress critical voices at social events.
September 8, 2025
opengazete / Cumhuriyet