Turkish social media outage

Police forces arrived at the home of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul and a political rival of Turkish President Erdoğan, and arrested him.

The reason for his arrest was stated to be corruption and aiding a terrorist group. The mayor of Istanbul has announced his intention to officially run for president in the upcoming Turkish presidential elections.

Following his arrest and the arrest of approximately 100 members of political parties opposed to the Turkish government, access to social media platforms such as Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube was disrupted. Anti-government media outlets also reported reduced internet bandwidth in Istanbul.

Many critics of this measure have resorted to using social media, particularly Twitter, to express their opinions and dissent, and this appears to be the reason for the limited access to these platforms.

Over the past four years, the Turkish government has repeatedly restricted or blocked numerous social media platforms for various reasons, including sensitive political and social events, insults directed at various officials and figures, and so on.