Turkiye has blocked access to the social media platform Instagram, according to an AFP report on Friday. The decision follows accusations from high-ranking Turkish officials who claim that Instagram is censoring content.
The BTK, Turkiye’s communications authority, said on its website that “Instagram.com has been blocked by a decision as of 02/08/2024.” However, the statement did not specify the exact reason for the shutdown.
Early on Friday, social media users took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to express their frustration over the new restriction.
One user wrote: “I woke up and suddenly the country became Iran!!!! Instagram is no longer available for use in Turkiye! I wonder what is hiding again.”
Uyandım ve bir anda ülke İran olmuş!!!! Türkiye’de artık İnstagram kullanıma açık değil! Yine ne gizleniyor acaba? #instagram #BTK pic.twitter.com/nNmZo8mO82
— muhaliffrida (@muhaliffrida) August 2, 2024
AFP journalists have confirmed the authenticity of the news.
The situation escalated on Wednesday when Fahrettin Altun, the Turkish presidency’s communications director, accused the Meta-owned platform of restricting content.
He maintained that Instagram was preventing users from posting messages of “condolence for the martyr Haniyeh.”
Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas and a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was killed in Tehran on Wednesday in an Israeli attack.
Altun said that Instagram is “actively preventing people from posting messages of condolences for the passing of Hamas leader Haniyeh without citing any policy violations.”
He further stated in a post on X, “This is censorship, pure and simple.”
Our dear brother Ismail Haniyeh, political bureau chief of Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, has faced death with the kind of humility that his enemies can never understand. He is one of the great heroes and a martyr for the Palestinian cause. May God bless his soul.…
— Fahrettin Altun (@fahrettinaltun) July 31, 2024
The decision to block Instagram has sparked widespread ridicule across other social media platforms. One X user shared a well-known short video depicting a train packed with people, captioned:
“Instagram has been blocked from access in Turkiye. People’s access to Twitter in the early hours of the morning.”
SON DAKİKA / Instagram, Türkiye’de erişime kapatıldı.
Sabahın ilk saatlerinde #instagram halkının Twitter’a girişi.#instagramdown Elon Musk Noldu pic.twitter.com/2bpyh0SshL— Serkan YİĞİT (@SerkanYT16Bs) August 2, 2024