The Turkish antitrust authority is investigating Spotify’s activities: officials accuse the platform not only of violating competition rules, but also of distributing content that allegedly insults the wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Turkish antitrust authority is investigating Spotify’s activities: officials accuse the platform not only of violating competition rules, but also of distributing content that allegedly insults the wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
According to The Times, at the center of the scandal were playlists with provocative titles that mention Emine Erdogan in a satirical context. Among them: «Emine Erdogan’s Hot Girl Playlist», «Songs Emine Listened to When the Golden Faucet Broke» and «Songs Emine Erdogan Listened to While Cleaning the Palace.»
Turkey’s Deputy Culture Minister Batuhan Mumcu accused the platform of «undermining spiritual values» and distributing «insidious, provocative content» that he said insults the faith of the Turkish people and harms national unity. According to the official, Spotify has a responsibility to its audience, and such materials are «not compatible with the country’s morality and culture.»
Despite the fact that the official basis for the investigation is suspicion of collusion and unfair competition, in particular regarding the priority promotion of certain artists and the distribution of royalties, experts suggest that the real motive is political pressure through satire.
Spotify responded by saying it was acting in accordance with local law and was willing to cooperate with the regulator, although it had not yet received details about the scope or direction of the investigation. At the same time, according to The Times, the company is already considering the possibility of completely winding down its operations in Turkey, as it is not ready to introduce censorship due to political pressure.
In 2015, the Erdogan couple found themselves at the center of a high-profile scandal. They were accused of using gold plumbing fixtures in the presidential palace. The president then vehemently denied this, saying he would resign if the information was confirmed, and threatened to sue opposition politicians.
This is not the first case of online censorship in Turkey: previously, authorities restricted access to responses from xAI’s Grok chatbot due to its critical remarks about Erdogan.
We will remind you that we also published an article about how, following Russia, the Turkish authorities imposed restrictions on access to Discord after reports that certain groups in the messenger were selecting children for grooming, blackmail, and cyberbullying.
