– Turkey has blocked access to the social media platform Instagram following allegations of an alleged attempt to censor pro-Hamas content, the Information Technology and Communications Authority (BTK) announced on Friday.
The platform, which is also widely used in Turkey, was only accessible to users in the country via protected network connections (VPN) on Friday morning. Cyber rights activist Yaman Akdeniz wrote on the X platform that the reason was “national security and the protection of public order”.
With so-called geoblocking, content is blocked in certain regions based on the user’s IP address. The effects on users with foreign SIM cards in Turkey, for example, can vary.
On Wednesday, Turkey’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, accused Instagram in a post on X of blocking expressions of condolence for Ismail Haniya, the slain foreign chief of the Islamist Hamas. He had accused the platform of censorship. It was not initially clear whether there was a connection to the blocking.
The platform must adhere to rules and some “social sensitivities” before it will be released again, Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu told CNN Türk in the afternoon, without giving any details. “As soon as they have corrected these deficiencies, say an hour later, we will have removed the blockage.”
Turkey has declared a day of national mourning for Friday because of Haniya’s death, as Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on X. Turkey has good relations with the Islamist Hamas. Erdogan met Haniya in Istanbul in April.
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