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A Turkish court has blocked access to Ekrem Imamoglu’s YouTube channel (@ekremimamoglu) and his presidential campaign office's X account (@CAOIletisim1), EngelliWeb initiative (@engelliweb), a project of Turkey’s Freedom of Expression Association, reported on July 16.
The ruling against the jailed challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and elected mayor of Istanbul was, as usual, issued under Article 8/A of Law No. 5651 and on the grounds of protecting national security and public order.
On July 15, Imamoglu released an AI-generated video on his accounts, targeted at young voters and explaining how at his trial he was being "given barely three minutes to defend myself against each charge levelled against me".
YouTube has not yet made the channel with 787,000 subscribers invisible from Turkey and X has not yet done so for the related Imamoglu account with 222,000 followers.
Following the block put in place against access, the account's name was changed to CAOIletisim11. The latest ruling marked the seventh ban introduced against various X accounts used by Imamoglu.
Cat and mouse
On April 24, 2025, the Istanbul 8th (sulh ceza) Criminal Court of Peace blocked Imamoglu's X account with 9.7mn followers (ekrem_imamoglu) on the grounds of protecting national security and public order with ruling numbered 2025/4361. X made the account invisible from Turkey.
In May 2025, the international X account (imamoglu_int) was blocked from access in May 2025 on the same grounds. X has yet to make this one invisible from Turkey.
In November, the X account of Imamoglu’s presidential campaign office with the username CBAdayOfisi was blocked under a decision of Istanbul 10th Criminal Court of Peace numbered 2025/11774.
After the block was put in place, the account's name was changed to CBAdayOfisi1. However, this account name was then also blocked later in November on the same grounds, though X did not make the account invisible from Turkey.
The account name was next changed to CBAdayOfisi11. However, this account was also subsequently blocked from access on the grounds of protecting national security and public order. X made the account invisible from Turkey on last November 17.
In March, a newly opened account, CAOIletisim, was blocked on the security and order grounds, but it remained visible on X from Turkey. Following the implemented block, the account's name was changed to CAOIletisim1.
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