This article is based on coverage by Global Voices. An edited version is republished here under a content-sharing agreement between Global Voices and Metamorphosis Foundation.
A woman identified as Dilruba Y, was arrested in the province of Izmir, Turkey, after criticizing the government’s choice to block Instagram during a street interview with a local popular YouTube channel, Tuylu Mikrofon (furry microphone). She has been accused of “insulting the president,” and “inciting hatred and hostility among the public,” both common charges leveled against government critics in Turkey in recent years.
Access to Instagram was blocked on August 2, after Turkish communications official Fahrettin Altun criticized the platform for censoring condolence messages for the death of Ismail Haniyeh, a key official of Hamas — an Islamic Resistance group that governs the Palestinian territory of Gaza. Hours after the blocking, an official who spoke to news platform Medyascope said Altun’s remarks were not the real reason the platform was blocked. They claimed the decision was a long time coming, due to the platform’s failure to follow state demands on numerous issues, including offenses against national security and public order, child abuse, encouraging suicide, illegal betting, and others.
Access to the platform was restored on August 10 following a week-long negotiation between Meta and Turkish officials, according to local media reports.
Street interviews
Street interviews have gained popularity in recent years in Turkey, particularly as the mainstream media has become dominated by pro-government outlets and often controlled by the state. They are one of the few remaining avenues for citizens to share their grievances and speak their minds, thus people are often critical of the ruling government in these interviews. As such, RTUK — Turkey’s chief censor — has long expressed its dissatisfaction with them. Most recently this was reflected through the blocking of Instagram. At the time, the head of the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), Ebubekir Şahin said in a tweet, the state institution disapproved of street interviews as they were a source of disinformation. “Such misleading interview techniques are consciously used to influence the masses,” wrote Şahin.
In recent years, RTUK has been granted sweeping powers to control online media content. The move was not unusual, given that over 90 percent of mainstream media outlets are owned by pro-government companies.
According to the most recent Internet Censorship report produced by the Free Web Turkey platform, “access to 219,059 URLs, including 197,907 domain names were blocked in Turkey in 2023. While the number of blocked news was 14,680, the most blocked news was about corruption and irregularities.” In addition according to the findings of the report, 5,641 social media posts and 743 social media accounts were also removed or banned.
Turkey has a long history and tradition of blocking content or throttling internet access. Most recently, on July 12, access to the storytelling platform WattPad was blocked without citing any reasons for the block. In December 2023, the government also imposed an access ban on 16 VPN providers. The country is ranked “not free” on the annual Freedom on the Net report published by Freedom House. The country also is ranked 158th out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders most recent Freedom of the Press Index.
Insulting the president
According to Dogruluk Payi, a Turkish fact-checking platform, in 2022 the total number of people accused of “insulting the President” was 16,753. Of them 1,377 were children.
According to Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code, it is illegal to insult the president. The accused can face up to four years behind bars. Article 301 of the Penal Code criminalizes “degrading the Turkish Nation, State of Turkish Republic, [and] the Bodies and Institutions of the State.” Since being elected in 2014, Freedom House reports that some “100,000 people have been accused of defaming the president” and breaking Article 299 of the Penal Code, a provision rarely used before Recep Tayyip Erdoğan became the president in 2014, according to a 2018 report by Human Rights Watch.
Students, artists, journalists, lawyers, and average citizens have been prosecuted or faced trial for violating this article. According to the Ministry of Justice, General Directorate of Criminal Records and Statistics, 36,000 people were investigated for allegedly insulting the president in 2019 and 31,297 in 2020. In comparison, only four people were investigated under the article in 2010. In October 2021, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the criminal proceedings instituted under Article 299 violate Article 10 on freedom of expression of the European Convention on Human Rights.
In May 2024, a group of university students was brought to court facing similar charges over an AI-generated image of President Erdoğan holding a painting of destruction caused by the devastating February 6 earthquake, with the words “Masterpiece” written on it. During the hearing, the prosecutor alleged the picture was “clearly an attack on the honor and dignity of the President.” Following the news of the earthquake in February 2023, access to Twitter and TikTok was temporarily throttled. The state also detained and launched criminal proceedings against social media users who criticized the state’s dithering response to the earthquake.
In April 2023, graphic designer Mahir Akkoyun was detained over a sticker campaign he started ahead of the May general election in Turkey meant to raise awareness about President Erdoğan’s questionable economic policies. As stickers started gaining momentum on social media platforms and were being used across Turkish cities and provinces, Akkoyun tweeted that he was being detained on grounds of insulting the president, disrupting the election, and making false rumors. After hours of questioning, Akkoyun was released.
When Erdoğan contracted COVID-19 in February 2022, at least 36 investigations were launched against social media users who expressed too much enthusiasm around the news. Among them was former Olympic swimmer Derya Büyükuncu. “He has COVID-19 and wants prayers. We’re praying, don’t worry. I’ve started making 20 pots of halva. I’ll give some to the entire neighborhood when the time comes,” tweeted Büyükuncu following the news. For those unfamiliar with halva, in addition to being a popular sweet, prepared with flour or semolina, butter, and honey, it is also served during funeral ceremonies. The athlete was then charged with “insulting the president” and a warrant was issued for his arrest for what the Office for the Chief Public Prosecutor alleged was an indirect wish for the president’s death and thus, a criminal act. The swimmer was also permanently suspended from the Swimming Federation of Turkey.
However, this ban on insults only works one way. Over the course of the ruling party’s tenure, government officials have insulted the public on numerous occasions, referring to citizens as “riffraff,” “bandits,” “terrorists,” “sluts,” and more. Most recently, Erdoğan used a racial slur against critics of the Instagram ban and the government’s decision to declare a day of mourning in the name of Ismail Haniyeh, calling them “house negros” of “bad character,” invoking Malcolm X’s famous speech, and implying those who criticized the ban were betraying their country in favor of the tech giants.
