Turkey blocks Instagram amid complaints of censorship of Hamas posts

Turkey blocked access to Instagram for its 85 million people, the country’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority announced Friday morning.

“Instagram.com has been blocked by a decision on the date of 02/08/2024,” local media cited a post on the authority’s website as saying. According to Turkish media, there are more than 50 million users of the photo-sharing app in the country.

The Turkish government did not disclose a reason for the ban nor how long it would be in place. Reports however suggest the ban was a response to the Meta-owned platform removing posts related to the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Turkey’s Daily Sabah newspaper, which typically toes the government line, wrote in a headline that the ban was “over Haniyeh posts removal,” referring to posts by users in the country expressing condolences over the Hamas leader’s death on Wednesday.

Haniyeh, the head of the Palestinian militant organization’s political wing, was killed in a blast in Tehran while visiting the country for the inauguration of its new president. Iranian officials and Hamas blame Israel for what they say is an assassination, while Israel has declined to comment.

Fahrettin Altun, head of Turkey’s presidential communications and an aide to Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan, on Wednesday criticized Instagram, accusing it of censorship.

In a multi-paragraph post on X lamenting the death of “our dear brother Ismail Haniyeh,” Altun wrote: “I also strongly condemn the social media platform Instagram which is actively preventing people from posting messages of condolences for the passing of Hamas leader Haniyeh without citing any policy violations.”

“This is censorship, pure and simple,” he added. “We will defend freedom of speech against these platforms that have showed many times that they are primarily in the service of global exploitative system of injustice.”

CNBC has contacted Meta for comment.

Unlike the U.S. and many of its Western allies, Turkey does not consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization. Turkey’s government has long been a vocal critic of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza and its occupation of the Palestinian territories — although it maintains diplomatic and economic relations with Israel — and Turkish President Erdogan has described Hamas as “liberation fighters.”