The Turkish government didn’t say why the ban was in place or how long it would last.
However, reports say the ban was a reaction to the Meta-owned platform taking down posts about the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
The Information and Communication Technologies Authority of Turkey said Friday morning that Instagram was blocked for 85 million people in the country.
A post on the authority’s website said, “Instagram.com has been blocked by a decision on the date of 02/08/2024.” This was reported by local media. Turkish news outlets say that more than 50 million people in the country use the app to share photos.
The Turkish government didn’t say why the ban was in place or how long it would last. However, reports say the ban was in response to the Meta
-owned site taking down posts about Ismail Haniyeh’s death as the leader of Hamas.
The government-aligned Daily Sabah newspaper in Turkey said in a headline that the ban was “over Haniyeh posts removal.” This was in reference to posts from users in the country expressing sadness over the death of the Hamas leader on Wednesday.
Haniyeh, who was in charge of the political arm of the Palestinian militant group, was killed in a bombing in Tehran while he was there to see the new president take office. Officials in Iran and Hamas say that Israel is responsible for what they call a murder. Israel has not said anything about this.
Fahrettin Altun, who works for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and is in charge of the country’s government communications, said on Wednesday that Instagram was censoring content.
Altun wrote on X that he was saddened by the death of “our dear brother Ismail Haniyeh.” He also said, “I 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.”
“This is just plain censorship,” he said. “We will fight for free speech against these platforms that have shown over and over that their main goal is to serve a global system of racism and exploitation.”
Also Read: Ismail Haniyeh, the Leader of Hamas Killed in Iran
Turkey does not think of Hamas as a terrorist group like the US and many of its Western partners do. Even though it has political and economic ties with Israel, Turkey’s government has long been a vocal critic of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza and occupation of the Palestinian territories. President Erdogan of Turkey has called Hamas “liberation fighters.”
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