Turkiye has blocked access to Instagram for its 85 million citizens, as announced by the country’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority on Friday morning.
“Instagram.com has been blocked by a decision dated 02/08/2024,” local media reported, citing a notice on the authority’s website. Turkish media indicates that there are over 50 million users of the photo-sharing app in the country.
The Turkish government has not provided a specific reason for the ban or indicated how long it will remain in effect. Reports suggest that the ban may be linked to the removal of posts related to the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh from the Meta-owned platform.
A newspaper often aligned with the government, reported that the ban was related to Instagram’s removal of posts expressing condolences for Haniyeh’s death on Wednesday.
Haniyeh, who led the political wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, was killed in a blast in Tehran while attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president. Iranian officials and Hamas attribute the attack to Israel, which has not commented on the incident.
Fahrettin Altun, Turkiye’s presidential communications chief and aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, criticized Instagram on Wednesday, accusing the platform of censorship.
In a detailed post on X, lamenting Haniyeh’s death, Altun stated: “I also strongly condemn the social media platform Instagram for actively preventing people from posting messages of condolences for Hamas leader Haniyeh’s passing without citing any policy violations.”
“This is censorship, pure and simple,” he continued. “We will defend freedom of speech against these platforms that have repeatedly shown they serve the global exploitative system of injustice.”
Unlike the U.S. and many Western allies, Turkiye does not classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.
The Turkish government has long criticized Israel’s military actions in Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories, despite maintaining diplomatic and economic relations with Israel. President Erdogan has referred to Hamas as “liberation fighters.”
