Nearly 500 X Accounts Limited in Turkey as Fund Turmoil Deepens

What happened

EngelliWeb, an internet-censorship monitoring project of the Freedom of Expression Association, said close to 500 X profiles were blocked from view within Turkey in the last week. According to the group, the removals followed court decisions invoking national security and public order.

At the same time, Turkish social platforms have been buzzing with conversation about the ongoing fund crisis, including posts critical of how officials have handled it. Authorities also recently launched a probe into social media accounts suspected of sharing false or misleading content intended to sway financial markets and investor decisions.

Who was affected

Among those restricted, according to EngelliWeb: reporters Hilmi Hacaloglu, Dincer Gokce, Ersin Eroglu and Canan Kaya, plus the news outlet Kisa Dalga. Others on the list were Basaran Aksu, who co-founded the labor group Umut-Sen; Inan Mutlu, a political economist; Baris Ovgun, a university professor; and Veysel Ulusoy, who established the independent inflation research group ENAG.

The broader backdrop is severe market stress. More than 100 funds have been driven into liquidation, and in the broader industry turmoil, authorities have taken into custody company proprietors and senior officers at a number of firms.

What X and officials say

Under rules on its website, X can limit access to individual posts or entire accounts within a country when it receives legal demands such as court directives. The company did not answer a request for comment via its representative. A spokesperson for the Turkish government also declined to comment.

Voices on the ground

X informed Ugur Gurses - a journalist and columnist - that his account had been flagged under the court order, he said. Even so, his account remains viewable on the platform. "After receiving the notification from X, I asked which of my posts had prompted the request," Gurses told Bloomberg by phone.

Separately, Halk TV correspondent Dincer Gokce said he just created a new X account after the previous one was blocked. "I believe the decision may have stemmed from some of the stories or posts I shared about the fund crisis," he told Bloomberg. "The real issue is that X is simply complying, without any objection, with the authorities' censorship of thousands of accounts they don't want to be accessible."

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Yaman Akdeniz - co-founder of the Freedom of Expression Association and a professor at Istanbul Bilgi University - reported that his own account was likewise restricted. "The process lacks transparency," said Akdeniz.

What this means for your money

If you follow market commentary from Turkish academics and journalists, some voices may now be harder to find inside the country. That matters because the same crisis fueling these restrictions has already forced more than 100 funds to shut down and brought arrests at several firms, while officials scrutinize posts seen as influencing markets. Less open debate can make an already murky situation even tougher to read, especially for investors trying to make sense of fast-moving news.

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