Turkey on Friday, August 2, blocked access to social media platform Instagram for ‘censoring’ Palestinian militant group Hamas-related content.
According to Al Jazeera, the communication authority of the country, BTK, announced the blockade of the platform without giving details and ban duration.
The announcement came after the Turkish presidency’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, slammed Instagram on Wednesday for blocking the condolence post on Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination.
Altun wrote on X (previously Twitter), “This is censorship, pure and simple. We will continue to defend freedom of expression against these platforms, which have repeatedly shown that they serve the global system of exploitation and injustice.”
He vowed, “We will stand by our Palestinian brothers at every opportunity and on every platform.”
Meanwhile, Turkish digital law expert, Yaman Akdeniz, criticised the government’s decision with a post on X. The post read, “Access to Instagram was blocked around 3:00 AM this morning following an administrative order. The decision was made either by the presidency or a ministry. The BTK must have its decision approved by a judge.”
He further added, “The censorship imposed on Instagram is arbitrary and can never have any explanation or justification. No judge should approve such a request.”
To note, as per Turkish media, in the population of 85 million people, over 50 million users signed up to Instagram in the country.
