Turkey has accused Instagram of preventing people from posting condolence messages for Haniyeh.

Ankara, Turkey:

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

“Instagram.com has been blocked by a decision dated 02/08/2024,” the BTK Communications Authority said in a post on its website, without adding further details.

Many users based in Turkey complained on the X platform that they could not refresh their Instagram feed, which was confirmed by AFP journalists.

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

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

“It’s a very clear and obvious attempt at condemnation,” Alton said on X.

According to Turkish media, more than 50 million users have signed up on Instagram out of a population of 85 million in Turkey.

The decision has drawn derision from other social media networks such as X.

A meme depicting a crowded metro station with the tagline: “X when Turks wake up to find out Instagram is blocked”, started trending on the platform.

“Instagram is blocked in Turkey, life is over,” wrote user “cringe of master” with a picture of a sad man.

Others jokingly asked Instagram users where they could now see their doctoral photos.

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

Wikipedia was blocked between April 2017 and January 2020 due to two articles alleging a link between the presidency and extremism.

It caused shockwaves in a country where Erdogan’s government has often been accused of attacking civil liberties as the amount of information online became inaccessible.

In April, Facebook owner Meta suspended its Threads social network in Turkey after authorities there prevented it from sharing information with Instagram.

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





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