Turkey Bans Instagram With 50 Million Users at Stake
Turkey blocked access to Instagram across the country without stating a reason or duration for the ban.
Today (August 2), Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority, which regulates the internet, announced that it would be blocking access to Instagram for the 85 million people who live in the country.
The Information and Communication Technologies Authority began restricting access to Instagram but other services by parent company Meta, including Facebook and WhatsApp are still accessible.
“Instagram.com has been blocked by a decision on the date of 08/02/2024,” the authority’s website says, according to local media outlets cited by CNBC.
According to Turkish media, there are more than 50 million users of Instagram across the country.
Instagram Ban With No Official Explanation
The Turkish government did not disclose a reason for the ban nor how long it would be in place.
However, local reports suggest the ban was a response to Instagram removing posts related to the death of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
According to CNBC, Turkey’s government-affiliated newspaper Daily Sabah said that access was blocked in response to Instagram censoring posts by Turkish users mourning the Hamas political leader’s killing.
The Instagram block follows comments by Turkey’s presidential communications director Fahrettin Altun criticizing the social media platform for not allowing people in Turkey to post messages of condolences for Haniyeh.
“This is censorship, pure and simple,” Altun wrote on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) on Wednesday after Haniyeh was killed in an airstrike in Tehran, Iran.
Unlike the U.S. and many of its Western allies, the Turkish government does not consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization.
There was no immediate comment from Instagram. However, in the company’s U.S. regulatory filing this week, which accompanied its quarterly earnings report, Meta noted if it was found in breach of local rules, “the Turkish government could take action to reduce or eliminate our Turkey-based advertising revenue.”
According to The Financial Times, Turkey’s decision to restrict Instagram is also the latest sign of the country’s government using internet censors as a political tool at a time when observers are worried the country is sliding towards autocracy.
Earlier this year, Turkey threatened to ban X after the platform declined to take down several contentious posts, with Elon Musk’s social media platform eventually relenting.
The number of foreign and domestic websites censored or shut by Turkish authorities in recent years has risen sharply, with about one million domain names completely blocked as of early 2024. The video-sharing platform YouTube was blocked from 2007 to 2010.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
