Turkey blocks access to Instagram, prompting public fury
The move against Instagram follows a Turkish government official's criticism of the platform for not allowing condolence messages for slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
ANKARA — Turkish authorities on Friday restricted access to Instagram, prompting widespread public outcry in the country, with many users speculating that the move was in retaliation for the social media platform prohibiting condolence messages for slain Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu confirmed the ban later on Friday, saying the platform failed to comply with “some rules” and “social sensitivities” of Turkey, “despite all the warnings” by the authorities. He didn’t clarify which rules or sensitivities were disregarded.
“The moment they address these defects … we will remove the access ban,” he added.
Fahrettin Altun, head of the Turkish Presidency’s Communications Directorate, earlier this week slammed the decision by Instagram, which has more than 50 million users in Turkey, to restrict posts about Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran early Wednesday.
“I also strongly condemn the social media platform Instagram, which is actively preventing people from posting messages of condolences for the passing of Hamas leader Haniyeh without citing any policy violations,” he wrote on X. “This is censorship, pure and simple.”
“We will defend freedom of speech against these platforms,” Altun added.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday declared a day of mourning for Haniyeh, with the move prompting a fresh verbal row between Turkey and Israel.
Turkey’s charge d’affaires to Israel was summoned to the Israeli Foreign Ministry after the Turkish flag at the Turkey’s embassy in the Jewish state was lowered to a half mast on Friday in line with days of national mourning. “The State of Israel will not tolerate expressions of mourning for a murderer like Ismail Haniyeh,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz posted on X.
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oncu Keceli wrote, “You cannot achieve peace by killing negotiators [and] threatening diplomats,” in response to Katz. Unlike the United States and the majority of European capitals, Turkey doesn’t consider Hamas a terror organization.
The ban on Instagram has led to a major backlash from social media users and rights activists in Turkey.
“Censorship of Instagram is arbitrary and can never have any explanation or justification,” Yaman Akdeniz, a prominent Turkish cyber rights activist, posted on X. “No judge can approve such a request.”
Al-Monitor contacted Meta, which owns Instagram, but the company was unavailable for immediate comment.
The restriction on Instagram coincided with the website of the Constitutional Court, Turkey's highest court, being briefly inaccessible to many internet users in the country.
Users who had difficulty reaching the site claimed that access to the website might have been blocked after the country’s top court earlier this week struck down a law that authorizes the communications directorate “to take action against all forms of manipulation and disinformation” on the grounds that it would hamper the constitutional right of freedom of speech.
The directorate denied the claims later Friday, saying that the hiccup was a result of heavy traffic and that access to the court’s website remained intact.
Update: Aug. 2, 2024. This article has been updated to include the Constitutional court's website being accessible again and the communications directorate’s denial of claims that the website was blocked.
