Turkish police detained journalist Ali Tarakcı on Saturday over a tweet predicting a cabinet minister’s resignation, with a court ordering his X account blocked for users in Turkey.

On September 23, Tarakcı wrote on X that “a very important minister will resign on Friday.” He did not name the minister. Friday, September 25, passed without the resignation he predicted.

The press crimes unit of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation into whether the post violated a law against publicly spreading misleading information. Prosecutors ordered Tarakcı detained and instructed police to search his home and seize digital devices for examination, the Demirören news agency reported.

Tarakcı posted shortly after midnight that he was being detained. The prosecutors cited Article 217/A of the Turkish Penal Code in the order sent to authorities in İstanbul, where he was taken into custody.

At the prosecutors’ request, Ankara’s 7th Criminal Court of Peace then ordered access to Tarakcı’s entire X account blocked. X made the account unavailable in Turkey.

Article 217/A, enacted in 2022 and often called Turkey’s disinformation law, carries a prison sentence of one to three years for a conviction. It covers false information spread with the aim of causing public fear, panic or concern. The Committee to Protect Journalists has criticized its use against reporters.

The account block comes amid a larger series of restrictions on X in Turkey. On Thursday the account of digital rights advocate Yaman Akdeniz was withheld from users in the country. The Freedom of Expression Association, a Turkish group that tracks online censorship, has recorded restrictions on the accounts of journalists, academics and economists.