Turkey had blocked more than 1.5 million websites by the end of 2025, most by administrative order rather than by a court, and it throttles social media and messaging apps during protests, as in March and September 2025.
Every day we open 67 of the world’s biggest sites and apps from home internet connections in Turkey, and record what’s blocked, since when and how.
6 of 64 testedsites and apps with a confirmed block in Turkey
64 of 67 results confirmed in the last 48 hours. 3 older results awaiting a fresh test.
Tests are requested on Türk Telekom and Turkcell Superonline home connections. 2 of them on only some networks.
Older result: Opens. Last confirmed 13 Oct 2026, 10:47 UTC.
First observed on 30 Sep 2026
Internet ArchiveSearch & web tools
Older result: Opens. Last confirmed 12 Oct 2026, 11:00 UTC.
First observed on 30 Sep 2026
Background
Internet censorship in Turkey
Turkey’s internet law, Law No. 5651, underpins most blocks. The president of BTK, the telecoms regulator, can block sites by administrative order, and about 70% of the domains BTK blocked in 2025 were gambling and betting sites; criminal judgeships of peace have ordered or approved most blocks of news articles and social media posts. Article 8/A lets the authorities block content first on national security or public order grounds, with a judge’s approval afterwards. İFÖD, a free-expression group, counted 1,505,484 blocked websites and domains by the end of 2025.
Big platforms have been blocked outright too. Wikipedia was unavailable in every language from April 2017 until January 2020, when access returned after the Constitutional Court ruled the block unconstitutional. In 2024 Instagram was blocked for nine days in August, and Roblox, Discord and Wattpad were blocked indefinitely. X is handled account by account: it withholds accounts inside Turkey on the authorities’ orders, 995 of them under Article 8/A in 2025, after the protests over the Istanbul mayor’s arrest.
Turkey also slows social media when tension rises. After Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was detained on 19 March 2025, X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal and other apps were throttled across Istanbul for about 42 hours, on a decision by the presidency’s security directorate that an Ankara judge approved. A second round of about 21 hours followed after police cordoned off the opposition CHP’s Istanbul headquarters on 7 September 2025.
Pressure kept rising in 2026. A draft law that surfaced in April 2026 would define VPN services in law for the first time and let BTK slow or block VPN providers that don’t pay its fines. In September 2026, as an investment fund crisis unfolded, court orders citing national security and public order had about 500 X accounts withheld in Turkey within a week, many of them run by reporters, economists and academics.
Are VPNs legal in Turkey?
No Turkish law bans using a VPN, but since November 2023 the telecoms regulator, BTK, has had internet providers block well-known VPN services, without a court order.
Key dates
About 500 X accounts, many run by reporters, economists and academics, are withheld in Turkey within a week, during an investment fund crisis.
Social media and messaging apps, Signal included, are throttled for about 21 hours after police cordon off the CHP’s Istanbul headquarters.
After Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu is detained, X, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp and other apps are throttled across Istanbul for about 42 hours.
Instagram is blocked nationwide for nine days, until it agrees to act on content Turkish law treats as serious crimes.
BTK tells internet providers to block 16 well-known VPN services, without any court decision.
Turkey blocks Wikipedia in every language, a block that lasts more than two and a half years.
Get past a block
Blocked in Turkey?
A VPN connects you through a server in another country, so the blocks in Turkey no longer apply. Where VPNs themselves are blocked, you need one that can disguise its traffic.
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History
Changes in Turkey
No confirmed changes since monitoring began on 29 Sep 2026. When a block appears or lifts, and a re-check on several machines agrees, it shows up here.
Method
How we test
Test machines on Türk Telekom and Turkcell Superonline home connections open each site’s homepage every day.
A failure counts only when it happens twice on the same network, while the site opens from other countries.
A change is published only after re-checks a few hours later and again the next day, on several machines per provider, confirm it. It’s dated from the first sighting.
Test machines caught getting around blocks, through a VPN or a filter-dodging tool, are set aside.
We test websites, mostly over home broadband. Apps, calls and mobile networks can behave differently.
Not any more. Turkey blocked every language edition of Wikipedia from April 2017. After the Constitutional Court ruled on 26 December 2019 that the block was unconstitutional, access was restored on 15 January 2020, more than two and a half years later.
Is Instagram Banned in Turkey?
Only briefly so far. Turkey blocked Instagram nationwide from 2 to 10 August 2024, after a senior official accused it of blocking condolence posts about the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Access returned when Instagram agreed to act on content Turkish law treats as serious crimes, and it was among the apps slowed in Istanbul in March 2025.
Is X (Twitter) Blocked in Turkey?
Only for short periods. Turkey blocked it for eight hours after the February 2023 earthquakes and slowed it with other apps during the 2025 protests. More often, the authorities have X withhold individual accounts inside Turkey: 995 under Article 8/A in 2025, and about 500 more within a week in September 2026.
