Turkey Blocks Access To Instagram Over Alleged Censure Charges: Report

On Wednesday, the Turkish presidency’s communications director Fahrettin Altun slammed Instagram and accused it of “impeding people from publishing messages of condolence for the martyr Haniyeh”.

Instagram has more than 50 million users in Turkey.

Source : Unsplash/Alexander Shatov

Bangladesh banned WhatsApp on Friday and now Turkey has blocked access to another Meta-owned social media app, i.e., Instagram. The National Communications Authority of Turkey blocked the access following censorship accusations against the US company by a high-ranking Turkish official. No further explanation was provided, as per news agency AFP. Turkey's Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) in a post said, “Instagram.com has been blocked by a decision on the date of 02/08/2024.”

Numerous users residing in Turkey expressed their frustration on X over them not being able to refresh their Instagram feed.

What Went Down

Earlier on Wednesday, the Turkish presidency’s communications director Fahrettin Altun slammed Instagram and accused it of “impeding people from publishing messages of condolence for the martyr Haniyeh”.

Ismail Haniyeh was the political chief of the armed Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to reports, he was killed in Tehran on Wednesday in an attack which was allegedly carried out by Israel, reported AFP.

In a post on X, Altun said, “This is a very clear and obvious attempt at censure.” As per Turkish media, Instagram hosts more than 50 million in Turkey. Notably, the total population of Turkey is around 85 million.

Memefest Begins

The decision triggered a memefest on other social media networks such as X. A user posted an image of a congested metro station with the caption, “X when Turks wake up to find that Instagram is blocked.”

Another user while sharing a picture of a grieving man wrote, “Instagram is blocked in Turkey, life is over.”

Others sarcastically inquired where Instagram users would now display their edited images.

This isn't the first instance of Turkish authorities restricting access to social media platforms. Wikipedia, for example, was blocked from April 2017 to January 2020 due to two of its articles suggesting a connection between the presidency and extremism.

In April, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, suspended its Threads social network in Turkey following a governmental decision to stop it from sharing information with Instagram.