Alaturka Amerika — Alaturka’s dedicated page for Turkish Americans — has been offline on Facebook and Instagram since October 5. Someone offered us money to take down our reporting on a U.S. federal case. We refused. Then came threats and fake copyright claims: 27 complaints, filed in our own reporters’ names, took down 52 posts.
Alaturka, a Turkish-American news publisher established in 2001, is making public the sequence of removal demands, threats and copyright complaints that disrupted Alaturka Amerika, our dedicated service for the Turkish community in the United States.
On September 23, a person named in a report based on public U.S. federal court records asked us to remove related posts. We offered to correct any documented factual error but declined to remove the reporting on that basis.
On September 29, a separate individual describing themselves as an “agency” offered payment to remove posts concerning the same story. We refused.
Copyright complaints began on September 30. That day, an email address also used to submit complaints sent a written threat: remove the story or another complaint would close our account.
To date, 27 fraudulent complaints from 11 email addresses have removed 52 pieces of content. Complaints used the names of our own reporters and contributors. Those whose names were used notified Meta in writing that they had not submitted them.
Our Instagram account was disabled on October 3, restored on October 4, and disabled again after a new complaint. Our Facebook Page was suspended on October 5. Both channels remain offline.
We have submitted more than 50 appeals and signed counter-notifications. Meta has restored 22 posts, but as of October 14 our Page and account remain offline. We have reported the case to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and contacted press-freedom organizations.
We do not know the full relationship between the original removal requester, the person offering payment and those behind the complaints. We are preserving the evidence and are not identifying an unverified perpetrator.
Alaturka Amerika connects Turkish-speaking readers in the United States with public-health alerts, immigration developments and community reporting. Its closure interrupts that service.
We ask Meta to review the complaints, threat email and contributors’ statements together; reverse enforcement resulting from fraudulent complaints; and restore our Page and account.
We do not remove reporting in exchange for payment or threats. We remain committed to correcting documented factual errors.
Please share this statement. Our reporting continues at AlaturkaOnline.com and on Instagram at @alaturkaonline.
Alaturka Editorial Team
October 14, 2026
Contact: alaturka@alaturka.com
