Turkey blocks access to Instagram

AFP | Istanbul

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com   

Turkey blocked access to the Instagram social media network yesterday, without giving any official explanation, following censorship accusations against the US company from a high-ranking Turkish official.

Many users living in Turkey complained on the X platform that they could not refresh their Instagram feed, an issue verified by AFP journalists.

The BTK communications authority announced on its website yesterday that the Meta-owned platform had been blocked.

It did not give a reason but a BTK official told Turkish media it was because of “criminal content” on Instagram that the latter had been asked to withdraw.

The president’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, had on Wednesday accused Instagram of censure, saying it was “preventing people from publishing messages of condolence for the martyr Haniyeh”.

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

Erdogan decreed a national day of mourning in memory of Haniyeh, who played a key role in talks aimed at ending nearly 10 months of war in Gaza.

“This is a very clear and obvious attempt at censure,” Altun said on X.