In a sweeping crackdown on free speech, Turkish authorities have, over the past week, shut down an independent news website accused of publishing “LGBT propaganda,” blocked a number of X/Twitter accounts accused of spreading “pro-Israel propaganda,” and blocked at least 147 other social-media accounts that had shared content about the country’s fund crisis, according to Turkish media reports and groups that monitor Internet freedom.
A court in Istanbul on Wednesday shut down the independent news website T24 and its affiliated social-media accounts over content that prosecutors described as “LGBT propaganda.” It was the second major move authorities have taken against the LGBT community in recent weeks.
Turkish authorities arrested dozens of people accused of being LGBT as part of a campaign dubbed, “My Family is Safe.”
The court’s decision was formally served on the outlet by the Cyber Security Presidency by email on Wednesday evening. In response, the media site said almost half of those named in the complaint had stopped working for the site years ago, there was no LGBT “propaganda” published, and that the “baseless decision” violated laws on broadcasts and free expression.
Reporters Without Borders ranked Turkey No. 163 out of 180 countries in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index, down from No. 159 in 2025.
T24 denies they were paid to promote LGBT issues
“Against this truly unfair, disproportionate, and baseless decision, we are swiftly advancing legal processes with lawyers who rushed to our side from the very first moment, and we are filing our objections,” T24 said. It denied the accusation that it had received millions in funding to promote being LGBT.
Prosecutors said T24 had published 118 items over the past year that constituted “LGBT propaganda.” A list of the items was not published.
The authorities took action against 93 accounts on X, alleging that they had been spreading “propaganda” in favor of Israel and carrying out “perception operations through disinformation posts,” Turkiye Today news site reported.
The authorities also sought to block the accounts of 133 people accused of spreading alleged disinformation on the Gulf, publishing manipulative stock-market posts, targeting national security, and “conducting Israeli propaganda,” the report said.
The Adana Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued an order blocking 40 accounts. The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued a separate order against another 93 accounts.
Turkey had blocked access to at least 147 X accounts that shared content about the country’s fund crisis, EngelliWeb, an Internet censorship monitoring initiative, reported on Wednesday.
EngelliWeb, a project of the Freedom of Expression Association, said the affected accounts had included people working in finance and capital markets, economists, academics, technical analysts, traders, investors, and lawyers with a combined following of about 2.65 million users.
Earlier this week, EngelliWeb said about 150 X accounts, including those of journalists, online news outlets, and the co-founder of the association, Yaman Akdeniz, had been blocked on grounds of protecting national security and public order.