ISTANBUL: Turkey blocked entry to the Instagram social media community on Friday (Aug 2), with out giving any official rationalization, following censorship accusations towards the US firm from a high-ranking Turkish official.
Many customers dwelling in Turkey complained on the X platform that they might not refresh their Instagram feed, a difficulty verified by AFP journalists.
The BTK communications authority introduced on its web site on Friday that the Meta-owned platform had been blocked.
It didn’t give a purpose however a BTK official advised Turkish media it was due to “felony content material” on Instagram that the latter had been requested to withdraw.
The president’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, had on Wednesday accused Instagram of censure, saying it was “stopping individuals from publishing messages of condolence for the martyr Haniyeh“.
Ismail Haniyeh, the political chief of the Palestinian group Hamas and a detailed ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was killed in Tehran on Wednesday in an attack blamed on Israel.
Erdogan decreed a nationwide day of mourning in reminiscence of Haniyeh, who performed a key position in talks aimed toward ending almost 10 months of conflict in Gaza.
“It is a very clear and apparent try at censure,” Altun stated on X.
An nameless BTK supply denied the transfer was attributable to Instagram blocking posts about Haniyeh, telling web site Medyascope that it was over “insults to Ataturk”, the founding father of contemporary Turkey, and “crimes” together with “drug video games (and) paedophilia”.
He stated the platform can be blocked completely if it did not resolve the issue.