Turkey bans the social media platform Discord after it allegedly refused to give government officials information related to "child sexual abuse and obscenity" and the murder of two women in Istanbul last week. 2024-10-9
Turkey blocks internet access to Instagram, following comments made by Turkish communications director Fahrettin Altun that condemned Meta Platforms for taking down Instagram posts offering condolences or expressing sorrow towards the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. 2024-08-2
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey passes a new social media regulation bill that requires foreign sites to appoint Turkish-based representatives to help monitor content, and will punish companies that don't comply with fines and throttling bandwidth. 2020-07-29
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vows tighter control over "immoral" social media following alleged insults to his daughter and son-in-law when they announced the birth of their fourth son on Twitter. Erdoğan specifically mentioned Twitter, YouTube and Netflix. Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced the arrest of a number of social media users for "insulting tweets". 2020-07-1
The Constitutional Court of Turkey orders the immediate lifting of the block of Wikipedia in Turkey, ruling it a violation of the freedom of expression. In response to the news, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales says, "Welcome back, Turkey!" 2019-12-26
Turkey's Minister of the Interior Süleyman Soylu says almost 500 people were investigated and 121 have been detained for "insulting" the Turkish offensive in Syria on social media and characterizing Turkey as an "invading" force. 2019-10-11
After a narrow victory of Turkey's main opposition party CHP against Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's AKP in Istanbul's mayoral election last month, Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Council annulled the results and ordered a rerun of the election for the mayor of Istanbul. 2019-05-6
In an election marred by electoral fraud, Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party wins with 44% of the vote while Republican People's Party comes in second with 30% of the vote. Overall, People's Alliance gets 51% of the vote while Nation Alliance receives 37% of the vote. Voter turnout was 84%. 2019-04-1
Voters head to the polls in Turkey to vote on metropolitan and district municipal mayors along with provincial and municipal councillors. The election is believed to be contested on challenging the current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. 2019-03-31
Turkish police storm and shut down both Kanaltürk TV and Bugün, TV stations that have been critical of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) ahead of a general election on November 1. Baris Yarkadas, a lawmaker with the main-opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), said “We are witnessing the police entering news organizations, delivering declarations and taking over journalists’ seats—just like junta periods, this is called a police state”. 2015-10-28