ISTANBUL

The social media platform X has opened a representative office in Türkiye, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said Wednesday.

"X will now continue its operations in Türkiye with its Istanbul-based representative office," Uraloglu wrote on X.

Uraloglu, representing Türkiye at the International Transport Forum (ITF) in Leipzig, Germany, told Anadolu that X established a company in Istanbul, becoming "Türkiye's official counterpart."

“We have achieved a significant gain both at the point of tax payment in Türkiye and at the point of implementing direct sanctions," he said.

"We want all these (social media) platforms to have representatives or representative offices in our country without fail."

Uraloglu said that X carried out a delicate process to avoid creating the perception of a "restrictive mindset" in public opinion.

"We have warned X many times. At certain times, we imposed advertising bans and warned Twitter both verbally and in writing in a more assertive manner. These warnings contributed relatively to speeding up the process a bit," he added.