Turkey blocks access to Instagram without indicating the reason or duration

Ankara, Türkiye:

Turkey on Friday blocked access to the social network Instagram, the national communications authority said without explanation, following accusations of censorship against the US company by a senior Turkish official.

The BTK communications authority stated in a post on its website that “instagram.com was blocked by decision on 02/08/2024”, without adding further details.

Many users living in Turkey complained on Platform X that they were unable to update their Instagram feed, a problem verified by AFP journalists.

The Turkish presidency’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, on Wednesday attacked Meta-owned Instagram, accusing the platform of “preventing people from posting condolence messages for the martyr Haniyeh.”

Ismail Haniyeh, political head of the armed Palestinian Islamic group Hamas and a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was killed in Tehran on Wednesday in an attack blamed on Israel.

“This is a very clear and obvious attempt at censorship,” Altun said on X.

According to Turkish media, there are more than 50 million registered Instagram users in Turkey, out of a population of 85 million.

The decision generated ridicule on other social networks, such as X.

A meme showing a congested subway station with the slogan: “X when the Turks wake up and discover that Instagram is blocked”, started trending on the platform.

“Instagram is blocked in Turkey, life is over,” wrote user “CringeOfMaster” alongside a photo of a grieving man.

Others mockingly asked Instagram users where they could see their doctored images now.

This is not the first time that Turkish authorities have blocked access to social media sites.

Wikipedia was blocked between April 2017 and January 2020 because of two articles that alleged a link between the presidency and extremism.

This caused shock in a country where Erdogan’s government is often accused of attacking civil liberties due to the amount of online information that has become inaccessible.

In April, Facebook owner Meta suspended its Threads social network in Turkey following a decision by local authorities to prevent it from sharing information with Instagram.

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)