ISTANBUL — As Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and more than 100 others were detained in a sweeping crackdown, Turkish authorities imposed widespread restrictions on social media and messaging platforms, significantly slowing access to major sites and apps.
According to Turkish media reports, platforms including YouTube, Instagram, X, and TikTok, as well as messaging services such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal, have been subjected to bandwidth throttling, according to NetBlocks, a global internet censorship watchdog.
The Turkish government has not officially commented on the move, but social media users report that all major mobile and broadband providers in Turkey are enforcing the slowdown.
Turkey has previously imposed similar restrictions following major political events, bomb attacks, and natural disasters.
Under Turkey’s 2020 social media law, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) has the power to limit bandwidth for up to 10 hours without requiring further approval.