Why has Turkey blocked its most popular social media site Ekşi Sözlük?

Turkey’s most popular social media platform Ekşi Sözlük, a user-contribution-based collaborative hypertext dictionary has become a national obsession. For more than 20 years, it has nurtured its own incisive style of social critique while serving as a beacon for free speech on the Turkish internet. However, the recent twin earthquakes that claimed over 42,000 lives in Turkey and thousands more in neighbouring Syria, may prove to be the death knell for Ekşi Sözlük as the top telecommunications watchdog, the Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK), abruptly blocked its access on 21 February, according to Bloomberg. The website’s editorial team was not informed of what content specifically prompted the blocking. While trying to load the website now, a broken link in Turkey appears as if never existed. Manager Basak Purut shared a screengrab on Twitter where a screen can be seen with a bright orange banner from Turkey’s communications regulator indicating it has blocked the website as part of his investigation into the site’s inner workings.

biraz önce @sozluk hakkında bir engelleme kararı olduğunu öğrendik, konuyu araştırıyoruz, bilgi edincikçe paylaşacağız. https://t.co/pduUQSU3ev pic.twitter.com/DZ854YRQbI

— Basak Purut (@basakpurut) February 21, 2023

Turkey blocks popular social media site The move is largely seen as the most recent attempt to restrict internet information that the government considers to be false. Many users speculated if it might have something to do with comments made against the government’s response to the twin earthquakes . According to Global Voices, Article 8A of the controversial internet bill 5651 allows BTK to ban websites without a court warrant. When a piece of content threatens public safety, national security, or other factors, the watchdog is given the authority to restrict access to it. Nonetheless, as stated in the same article, the content provider must be informed of the blocking decision. However, Ekşi Sözlük CEO Basak Purut, in an interview with journalist Fatih Portakal on 22 February, said that there had been no communication between BTK and the platform editorial staff over the blockage. Issuing a statement, the website’s management team linked the blockage to a lack of content moderation, blaming false information provided by users for disturbing public order after the earthquakes.

Ekşi Sözlük, BTK kararıyla erişime engellendi. BTK'nın yasadaki yetkisi 8/A maddesindeki milli güvenlik & kamu düzeni gibi sebeplerle birlikte 8. maddede yer alan çocukların korunması ile ilgili sebepler ve son eklenen MİT Kanunda yer alan bazı maddelere ilişkin. @basakpurut https://t.co/zIgG9TBzOO

— Yaman Akdeniz (@cyberrights) February 21, 2023

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“The state was shown in a situation of helplessness, and the site’s administrators did not show the necessary reaction to the incorrect and slanderous articles,” they said, as per The Guardian. According to the report, the site was shut down as the nation began to increase focus on the upcoming elections in June. Earlier just weeks after the earthquakes, Turkish authorities had briefly blocked Twitter and had detained over five journalists . The website owners are now anticipated to file a legal appeal challenging the ban in court. Ekşi Sözlük – a beacon for free speech Created and designed by Kapanoğlu over 24 years ago, Ekşi Sözlük allows users to post remarks on a variety of topics, including politics, science, and other unimportant issues. The site grew to become a Turkish internet behemoth. According to Purut in an interview with Portakal, the website receives between 32 and 33 million visits every day. In the past, we have always agreed with requests to remove specific content, said Purut in an interview. The website received more than 100 million unique visitors last month, placing it among the top 10 most popular in Turkey. Despite its reputation as a haven for free expression, Ekşi Sözlük eventually became the home of political misinformation when politicians battled across an agitated Twitter or censored content on other platforms. Nonetheless, the site continued to serve as a guiding light for many Turks, especially, in a media environment that left many anxiously seeking out additional sources of information, according to The Guardian. A Turkish political party employee said the website was often used to spread favourable messages by carefully calibrating the message through a proxy user who had been able to get past the virtual velvet rope separating the hundreds of people waiting for valuable membership, enabling them to post entries rather than just read the site’s contents. Thus, they claimed, the website served as more of a “sounding board” rather than a platform for robots and purposeful falsehoods. The anger and criticism In 2021, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan denounced the website as a hub for “fake news, racism, and calls for terror” after it was called to as “the internet’s sewer” by a Turkish newspaper, according to The Guardian. Shortly after this, the Istanbul public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into a post titled “What needs to be done for the people’s uprising.” The Turkish courts have been investigating the website demanding to remove the content they deemed to be deeply offensive or illegal. Nothing was altered despite numerous negative campaigning about who was spreading false material on the platform, partly because political groups using it to smear rivals were hesitant to give up their positions. The outlet quoted the journalist Emre Kizilkaya, the head of the Turkish branch of the Vienna-based International Press Institute as saying, “Ekşi Sözlük is immensely important, not only for free speech in Turkey but also the free flow of news, as mainstream media outlets are controlled by the government. These forms of alternative media, including digital outlets, are incredibly important for Turkish democracy and Ekşi Sözlük was one of the primary channels for news and commentary in Turkey.” Journalist Kizilkaya explained, “The management did not or could not stop the invasion of bad actors, including trolls and agents of organised disinformation, and many of these bad actors were pro-government, spreading propaganda and misinformation.” Twitter blocked after twin quakes The Turkish government had previously restricted access to several social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Most recently, Twitter was blocked merely weeks after the quakes in the wake of the misinformation on the micro-blogging site. “Real-time network data show  Twitter  has been  restricted  in  Turkey; the filtering is applied on major internet providers and comes as the public comes to rely on the service in the  aftermath of a series of deadly earthquakes,” said the Netblocks internet observatory, which tracks connectivity across the globe. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.