2024-08-07 10:55:40
Turkey has blocked access to the online network Instagram. President Erdogan’s spokesman had previously complained about an “attempt to censor” pro-Hamas content.
Following allegations of an “attempt to censor” pro-Hamas content, Turkey has blocked access to the country’s hugely popular online network Instagram. “Instagram.com was blocked based on a decision dated August 2, 2024,” the Turkish Information Technology and Communications Authority (BTK) said on its website on Friday. Numerous users on the online service X said they could no longer use Instagram, which belongs to the technology group Meta. AFP journalists on site confirmed this.
The online network prevents “people from publishing messages of condolence for Haniya’s martyrdom,” presidential spokesman Fahrettin Altun said on X on Wednesday. This is a “very clear and obvious attempt at censorship.”
Turkish President Erdogan had declared a national day of mourning for Friday in honor of Haniya. The Hamas leader had frequently stayed in Turkey before his Palestinian organization’s major attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and Erdogan had also received him in Turkey after the attack.
Instagram is extremely popular in Turkey: according to Turkish media, 50 million of the country’s 85 million inhabitants have a user account on the platform. Turkish digital law expert Yaman Akdeniz described the Instagram ban as “arbitrary” and said there could “never be an explanation or justification” for it.
The Turkish authorities have temporarily blocked online networks several times in recent years, including Facebook and Twitter, often after attacks. Between April 2017 and January 2020, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia was also not easily accessible from Turkey because two entries stated that there were links between the government in Ankara and extremist organizations.