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Freedom House: Freedom on the Net 2025 – Turkey

  • Writer: NCCA
    NCCA
  • Nov 13
  • 2 min read

Updated: Nov 14

Freedom House, November 2025

Cover image for Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net 2025 report showing a large Rubik’s Cube symbolizing global internet challenges, with hands typing on a keyboard above it and scattered digital speech icons, representing the uncertain future of online freedom.

Overview

In Freedom on the Net 2025, Freedom House again ranks Turkey as “Not Free,” citing pervasive government censorship, broad surveillance powers, and the criminalization of online expression. The report highlights Turkey’s expanding digital repression through online content removals, social-media takedowns, bandwidth throttling, and prosecutions over internet activity.



Key Findings

Internet Freedom Status

  • Status: Not Free

  • Heavy deterioration in digital rights, online expression, and internet governance.


Digital Repression & Censorship

  • Thousands of websites, news portals, and social-media posts are blocked every year.

  • Authorities rely on vague charges — such as “insulting the president,” “terrorist propaganda,” and “spreading false information” — to silence critics.

  • Content on corruption, political misconduct, and human-rights abuses is systematically censored.


Government Surveillance

  • The government uses extensive surveillance tools, including deep-packet inspection and metadata collection.

  • Telecom companies must comply with government data requests without meaningful judicial oversight.


Criminalization of Online Speech

  • Journalists, activists, students, and ordinary citizens face prosecution for online posts.

  • The 2022 disinformation law enables arrests for content deemed “false” or “harmful to public order.”


Pressuring Tech Platforms

  • Social-media companies face heavy fines, advertising bans, and throttling if they refuse to comply with takedown orders or appoint local representatives.

  • VPNs and privacy tools are frequently restricted.



Why It Matters

Freedom House’s findings confirm that Turkey’s online environment remains among the most restrictive worldwide. The government’s approach to digital governance undermines free expression, limits access to independent news, and enables surveillance of political critics and journalists.


This digital repression contributes to Turkey’s broader decline in rule of law, civil liberties, and democratic governance.




Tags

Turkey · Freedom House · Internet Freedom · Censorship · Surveillance · Digital Rights

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