The Information and Communication Technologies Authority of Turkey blocked access to social media platform Instagram, according to AP News.
The authority announced the decision on Friday morning but did not provide a reason. However, Turkish media reported that it was in response to Instagram deleting posts by Turkish users expressing condolences over the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Sanctions for Instagram’s blackout policy were swift. The Information Technologies and Communication Authority blocked access to Instagram.
Previously, Fahrettin Altun, communications director and assistant to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, sharply criticised the Meta platform for not allowing users in Turkey to post messages of condolence for Haniyeh.
Unlike its allies, Turkey does not consider Hamas a terrorist organisation. Erdoğan called the group “liberation fighters” instead. The country is also mourning Haniyeh on Friday.
However, Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul and a member of Turkey’s main opposition party, condemned the decision to block Instagram, accusing the communications body of acting as a “censorship unit.”
Social media is a platform that everyone uses for many purposes, including for commerce and communicating. It is unacceptable that a platform used by the entire country is arbitrarily shut down one morning.
Turkey has a history of censoring social media and websites. For example, it blocked the video hosting platform YouTube from 2007 to 2010.
