X marks the spot: Turkiye mounts fresh crackdown on LGBTQ accounts after Erdogan’s ‘perverts’ jab
ISTANBUL, Sept 13 — Accounts of more than a dozen Turkish LGBTQ organisations have been blocked on the X social me...
Turkey has intensified its crackdown on LGBTQ accounts following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's derogatory remarks towards the community, according to a watchdog. Over a dozen Turkish LGBTQ organizations, including the Kaos GL rights organization and lawyer Levent Piskin, had their accounts blocked on the X social media platform at the request of authorities promoting traditional family values.
These accounts, which were followed by tens of thousands of users, became inaccessible in Turkey without the use of a VPN connection. The Turkish LGBTQ community has been repeatedly targeted by the authorities, with Erdogan branding the community as a "deviant movement" of "perverts." In June, Turkey blocked approximately 40 X accounts associated with feminist or LGBTQ groups.
In the previous year, Turkish authorities successfully lobbied X to block over 700 accounts critical of the government, during a period of widespread protests sparked by the arrest of Istanbul's opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu.
Written by urgent.news from Malay Mail's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
