On Friday, Turkey blocked access to Instagram, the country’s national communications authority (BTK) announced without explanation. This action follows accusations of censorship against the US company by a top Turkish official.
The BTK posted on its website that “instagram(dot)com has been blocked by a decision on the date of 02/08/2024,” but did not provide further details.
Many people in Turkey reported on the social media platform X that they could not refresh their Instagram feed. This issue was confirmed by AFP journalists.
Fahrettin Altun, the Turkish presidency’s communications director, criticized Meta-owned Instagram on Wednesday. He accused the platform of stopping people from posting condolence messages for Haniyeh, a martyr.
“This is a very clear and obvious attempt at censure,” Altun said on X.
Turkish media report that over 50 million people in Turkey use Instagram, out of a population of 85 million.
The decision led to jokes on other social media networks like X. A popular meme showed a crowded metro station with the caption: “X when Turks wake up to find that Instagram is blocked.”
One user, “CringeOfMaster,” wrote, “Instagram is blocked in Turkey, life is over,” along with a picture of a grieving man. Others jokingly asked where Instagram users would now see their edited photos.
This is not the first time Turkish authorities have blocked social media sites. Wikipedia was blocked from April 2017 to January 2020 because of two articles that linked the presidency to extremism. This shocked many in a country where Erdogan’s government is often accused of restricting civil freedoms by limiting online information.
In April, Facebook owner Meta suspended its Threads social network in Turkey after authorities prevented it from sharing information with Instagram.
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