X Blocks Jailed Istanbul Mayor's Candidacy Account Following Turkish Court Order

Social media platform X announced on August 4 that it is complying with a Turkish court order to block access within the country to the presidential candidacy office account of jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. An Istanbul court issued the order to restrict the account, which has approximately 225,700 followers, citing the need to protect national security and public order. X stated that while Turkish law requires the implementation of the restriction, the company disagrees with the order and has initiated legal proceedings to challenge it.

Imamoglu, the primary political rival of President Tayyip Erdogan, was detained by police on March 19, 2025. His detention triggered the largest protests Turkey has seen in more than a decade. He remains in jail pending trial on charges including espionage, terrorism, and graft, all of which he strongly denies. Days after his detention, Imamoglu was elected as the presidential candidate for the Republican People's Party. However, Istanbul University annulled his university diploma, a requirement for presidential candidacy, one day before his arrest.

This is the second such restriction for the politician; his main X account, which had nearly 10 million followers, was blocked in Turkey in May 2025 under a similar order that X also challenged. Under the ownership of Elon Musk, X has positioned itself as a defender of free speech, though the platform maintains that it complies with local laws in the countries where it operates while contesting specific orders in court.