Ekrem Imamoglu, Mayor of Istanbul, Türkiye
Police identified 261 "suspicious account managers," Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said in a post on X on Thursday.
The suspects made "provocative statements" on social media platforms, Yerlikaya said, accusing them of inciting hatred and provoking people to commit crimes. Cybersecurity forces continue conducting "virtual patrols" around the clock, he said.
#TürkiyeninHuzuruTurkey also restricted access to major social media platforms and WhatsApp after Imamoglu's detention, internet-monitoring group Netblocks said. Some users were still reporting problems accessing the platforms on Thursday. The Turkish government has restricted access to popular social media platforms in the past, including during terror incidents and major natural disasters, mostly citing security reasons.
Within the scope of the investigations launched by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, after the detention warrant was issued for a total of 106 suspects, including the Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, through some social media accounts;
-"Inciting the Public to Hatred and Hostility" and - It has been determined that provocative posts were made within the scope of the crime of "Incitement to Commit a Crime".
A total of 261 suspicious account managers, 62 of whom were abroad, were identified as having made these posts.
Following the coordinated work of our Cyber Crime Department and Security Department, 37 suspects were caught and efforts to catch the other suspects are ongoing.
After the detention procedures, a total of 18,647,269 posts were made on the social media platform Twitter (X) until 06:00 on 20.03.2025 regarding this issue, and it was determined that 66% of these posts were named accounts and 34% were bot accounts.
Within the framework of the authority granted by the law, the Department of Combating Cyber Crimes carries out virtual patrol activities on the internet on a 24/7 basis in order to combat crime and criminals.
#TürkiyeninHuzuru
— Ali Yerlikaya (@AliYerlikaya) March 20, 2025
Translated by X
The country's internet regulator has the authority to slash bandwidth under several conditions and social media platforms are subject to a long list of rules. The government's tighter grip over the platforms has worried human rights organizations, opposition politicians and other critics, who say it diminishes freedom of expression.
© Getty Images / Jeff J Mitchell/FileTürkiye’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Late Wednesday, a local court also ordered the seizure of Imamoglu Insaat Ticaret ve Sanayi AS, the construction company where the mayor is a partner.
Imamoglu said online "the will of the people cannot be silenced" as thousands gathered to protest in Istanbul.
"We must stand against this evil as a nation," Imamoglu said on social media platform X, calling on members of the judiciary and Erdogan's ruling party to fight injustice.
"These events have gone beyond our parties, political ideals. The process is now concerning our people, namely your families. It is time to raise our voices," he said.
© REUTERS/Umit BektasPolice officers gather as university students take part in a protest against the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, in Istanbul, Turkey, March 20, 2025.
Police on Thursday blocked off roads and stationed trucks with water cannons near the police station where the mayor is held and other areas of Turkey's largest city.
"They hastily detained our mayor, whom we elected with our votes," said Ali Izar, an opposition supporter on his way to work in central Istanbul. "I do not think this is a democratic practice and I condemn it."
Though civil disobedience has been dramatically curbed in Turkey since the nationwide Gezi Park protests against Erdogan's government in 2013, which prompted a violent state crackdown, thousands of protesters took to the streets and university campuses on Wednesday in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities.
Crowds had chanted anti-government slogans and, at the main municipality building in Istanbul, they hung banners of Imamoglu and the nation's founding leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk alongside Turkish flags.
His arrest sparked a historic plunge in the lira, although the selloff in Turkish assets that began following his arrest eased on Thursday as authorities announced measures to curb volatility and sold billions in dollars to support the lira.
Reader Comments
He has no allegiance to the EU or NATO, and he has no allegiance to Russia. His picture should remind you of Netanyahu, and they both are grabbing for pieces of Syria. The country itself is pretty corrupt, so I don't know if there will be a popular uprising against him.