Turkey’s democracy dies in silence as Musk mutes the opposition

Turkey’s slide into autocracy seems to have reached a tipping point, evident from the recent events that have thrown the nation’s fragile democratic framework into a major crisis. 

The latest crisis is the result of the arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s chief political rival. Detained in a dawn raid just before he was about to be nominated as the presidential candidate for the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), İmamoğlu now faces charges of embezzlement, corruption and terrorism. Critics see this as a calculated move by Erdoğan to neutralise the only figure who could challenge him in elections due before 2028 but might take place earlier.

The arrest has led to a wave of protests across Turkey, despite a government-imposed ban on gatherings. From Istanbul to Ankara, demonstrators have clashed with police wielding water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets, with 343 arrests reported in a single night. The opposition claims that three lakh people flooded Istanbul’s streets on a Friday night, defying roadblocks and riot police. 

Playing a key role in this unfolding drama by siding with the government is Elon Musk’s social media platform X, which has suspended numerous accounts linked to opposition figures and democracy activists. Musk, a self-proclaimed advocate of free speech who said he acquired X to champion unfettered expression, now finds his platform implicated in a troubling paradox. 

The suspensions, targeting voices of dissent in a country teetering on the brink of authoritarianism, cast further doubt on X’s role as a beacon of open discourse and raise profound questions about the limits of free speech and democracy in politically volatile states.

Meanwhile, the Turkish government’s response has been unrelenting. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has vowed zero tolerance for those disrupting “societal order”, while Erdoğan has branded the protests “street terrorism”. This hardline stance is mirrored online, where X’s suspensions have silenced key voices of resistance. The targeted accounts, largely university-associated activists with lakhs of followers, were instrumental in sharing protest locations and rallying students.

This is not a new tactic for X in Turkey; during Erdoğan’s 2023 re-election campaign, the platform restricted content to maintain its accessibility, bowing to government pressure. Transparency reports underscore this compliance: X honoured 86 per cent of Turkey’s content takedown requests in the second half of 2024, up from 68 per cent earlier that year. 

These suspensions are based on Turkey’s 2022 social media law, a sweeping measure that grants the state vast and ambiguous powers to suppress online content. Yerlikaya has defended the crackdown, citing 326 accounts identified as inciting hatred, and noting the arrest of 54 suspects in a joint cyber-security operation. While lawful under Turkish statutes, these actions reflect a broader strategy to mute dissent as the nation’s democratic credentials crumble. 

İmamoğlu arrest exemplifies this erosion. As mayor of Istanbul, which is Turkey’s cultural and economic heart, his detention strikes at the opposition’s core, threatening to dismantle the existing system that has allowed electoral competition, however imperfect, to persist.

Turkey has never been a paragon of democracy. Over the past decade, Erdoğan has steadily tightened his hold, appointing his loyalists to the judiciary and bureaucracy, co-opting the media to limit dissent and wielding state prosecutors to punish adversaries. Yet, opposition victories, such as last year’s municipal elections, have kept the system from tipping fully into autocracy.

Barring İmamoğlu from the presidential race would mark a decisive shift, aligning Turkey with countries like Russia, Belarus or Azerbaijan, where elections occur but lack meaning. It could cement Turkey’s transformation into an outright autocracy, a trajectory critics argue Erdoğan has pursued relentlessly.

The international reaction has been muted, offering Erdoğan little resistance. The United Nations has put out a vanilla statement, while the US State Department has declined to comment, calling it Turkey’s “internal decisions.” President Donald Trump’s recent call with Erdoğan, hailed as “transformational” by Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, hints at a burgeoning alliance, possibly linked to Turkey’s strategic roles in Syria and Ukraine. Trump’s administration, indifferent to democratic backsliding abroad, aligns with a global climate that enables autocrats. 

European leaders, meanwhile, once vocal critics of Erdoğan, have softened their stance. With Trump’s return to the White House and uncertainties over Ukraine, they see Turkey as a potential defence partner, a shift that could see Ankara supplying peacekeepers, a prospect that mutes criticism further.

Economically, the fallout from İmamoğlu’s arrest has been swift. The Turkish lira plummeted, prompting the central bank to spend an estimated $11.5 billion in a single day to stabilise it. Yet, Turkey’s geopolitical leverage—bolstered by its influence in Syria’s new government and its appeal to a Europe anxious about Russia—may insulate it from sustained pressure. 

The protests, the largest since the 2013 Gezi Park uprising, but Erdoğan’s defiance, rooted in his assertion that Turkey will not “surrender to street terrorism,” suggests a leader confident in his impunity.

For X, the suspensions expose a glaring tension between Musk’s free-speech ideals and the pragmatic realities of operating in repressive regimes. By acquiescing to Turkey’s demands, X secures its foothold in a vital market, but at the cost of amplifying the censorship Musk claims to abhor.