Twitter faces criticism for restricting content ahead of Turkey’s elections

Twitter faces criticism for restricting content ahead of Turkey’s elections

San Francisco, 5/15/2023

Twitter has been criticized for its decision to restrict content in Turkey ahead of Sunday’s election. The company began suspending posts in Turkey ahead of the vote pitting current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Twitter cited legal processes and its commitment to ensure the availability of its platform to users in Turkey to justify the move.

Owner Elon Musk also defended the decision, saying the only options are to restrict access to some tweets or throttle the platform altogether.

While the company did not specify what content was restricted, it did notify affected account holders. Users in other countries could still see the content, it said.

According to news site Turkish Minute, the censored accounts included Kurdish businessman Muhammed Yakut, who accused Erdogan and his allies of orchestrating an attempted coup in 2016, and investigative journalist Cevheri Güven, who exposes corruption in the country.

Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu will now face off in a runoff on May 28 after neither received more than 50% of the votes needed for an overall victory.

Erdogan, who has been in power for two decades, has an advantage in the run-off due to his lead in the first round and potential support from conservative voters who previously backed another candidate.

Turkey briefly blocked Twitter in February after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that killed over 50,000.