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Türkiye’s Information and Communications Technology Authority announced Friday morning that 85 million people in the country are unable to use Instagram.
“Instagram.com has been blocked due to the decision of February 8, 2024,” local media quoted a post on the agency’s website as saying. According to Turkish media reports, the photo-sharing app has more than 50 million users in the country.
The Turkish government did not disclose the reason for the ban or when it would be implemented. However, there are reports that the ban is a YuanThe owned platform removed posts related to the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Turkey’s Sabah daily, which usually toes the government line, wrote in a headline that the ban was “due to Haniya’s post being removed,” referring to posts by users in the country expressing condolences over the death of the Hamas leader on Wednesday.
Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian militant group’s political faction, was killed in an explosion in Tehran while visiting the country to attend the inauguration of the new president. Iranian officials and Hamas accused Israel of carrying out what they said was the assassination, while Israel declined to comment.
Fahrettin Altun, Turkey’s presidential communications director and an aide to Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan, criticized Instagram on Wednesday, accusing it of censorship.
In a multi-paragraph post about X Altun mourned the death of “our dear brother Ismail Haniyeh,” writing: “I also strongly condemn the social media platform Instagram, which actively prevents people from posting messages of condolences for the death of Hamas leader Haniyeh. , without identifying any policy violations.
“This is pure censorship,” he added. “We will defend free speech against these platforms, which have repeatedly shown that they primarily serve unjust systems of exploitation around the world.”
CNBC has contacted Meta for comment.
Unlike the United States and many of its Western allies, Türkiye does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization. Turkey’s government has long been an outspoken critic of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territory – although it maintains diplomatic and economic ties with Israel – and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described Hamas as a “liberator” warrior”.
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