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Users in Türkiye experience widespread disruptions accessing major social media platforms and messaging applications on Sunday, following government restrictions on protests in six Istanbul districts where opposition supporters planned to rally.
The restrictions affected Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Facebook, Telegram and Signal, according to NetBlocks, an organization that monitors internet censorship globally.
The disruptions began after Istanbul authorities banned demonstrations for four days starting Sept. 7.
The social media limitations followed a court decision to remove Istanbul's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leadership and appoint trustees in their place. CHP had called for rallies in response to the court ruling.
"Live metrics show online platforms including X, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp have been restricted in Türkiye on multiple networks; the incident comes as the main opposition party CHP calls for rallies after police blockaded its Istanbul headquarters," NetBlocks confirmed on its monitoring platform.
Türkiye's October 2022 "disinformation law" permits authorities to implement bandwidth restrictions on social media platforms.
"There is no improvement at this time. WhatsApp, Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Telegram, and TikTok remain blocked. The blockade is particularly observed in Istanbul. This type of blocking was last experienced during (former Istanbul Mayor) Ekrem Imamoglu's arrest," Isik Mater, director of research at NetBlocks, told Türkiye Today.
"Additionally, it's noteworthy that WhatsApp has been blocked alongside social media platforms," Mater noted.
Many Turkish citizens rely on virtual private networks (VPNs) to circumvent internet restrictions. VPNs create secure connections between devices and remote servers, allowing users to access blocked content by routing their internet traffic through computers in other countries.
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