Turkey abruptly banned Instagram across the entire country following a controversial action by the platform.
Instagram, one of the world’s most popular social networks, was abruptly banned in Turkey following a clash between the platform and the country’s government. Turkey has a total population of 85 million, 50 million of which are active Instagram users, according to the platform’s data.
There was no official reason for the block, though some Turkish officials made clear it followed Instagram’s ban of accounts posting condolences for the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Haniyeh was killed last Wednesday by a bomb likely planted by Israeli Mossad agents in Teheran. He was attending the inauguration of Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is an outspoken supporter of Hamas and their anti-Israel actions. Turkey is one of the few NATO members that recognizes the existence of the Palestinian state and supports its effort against Israel.
While most of the Western alliance considers Hamas a terrorist organization, that is not the case with Turkey.
Turkey will follow one day of mourning for the death of Ismail Haniyeh, leaving flags at half-pole throughout the country.
“We warned Instagram about certain offenses,” Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said without specifying what those offenses were. “We want some rules to be followed. We intervene when they disregard legal rules and public sensitivities,” he added.
“We are in contact with [Instagram]. Our sensitivities are clear, as soon as they correct those shortcomings, we will remove the ban. This is a country with laws and rules.”
Other Turkish officials, including Uraloglu deputy chief of staff Omer Fatih Sayan, criticized Instagram of X (formerly known as Twitter). “We will do what is needed to establish a social media that respects our values, is free of disinformation, and is cleaner and more secure,” Sayan wrote.
“Social media is a platform that everyone uses for many purposes, including for commerce and communicating,” the mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu also wrote on X. “It is unacceptable that a platform used by the entire country is arbitrarily shut down one morning.”
Freedom of press in Turkey
Turkey ranked 158 out of 180 on the 2024 Freedom of the Press index drafted by Reporters Without Borders. “With authoritarianism gaining ground in Türkiye, media pluralism is being called into question,” the official report by Reporters Without Borders states.
According to the report, the government controls 90% of Turkey’s national media, with less than adequate coverage of the country’s economic and political situation.
“The public has turned, during the past five years, to critical or independent media outlets of different political biases to learn about the impact of the economic and political crisis on the country,” the report says.
