Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority has blocked access to Instagram, a move linked to the recent death of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. This action marks the latest instance of Turkey’s ongoing trend of restricting social media platforms, a pattern that has seen numerous websites shut down since 2022.
The regulator did not initially provide a specific reason for the decision made early on Friday. However, Turkish media reports suggest the block is a response to Instagram’s management of condolence messages related to Haniyeh, who was killed on Wednesday, July 31. Turkish officials had previously accused Instagram of censoring posts expressing condolences for Haniyeh’s death.
Fahrettin Altun, Turkey’s communications director, criticized Instagram on X, accusing the platform of “impeding people from publishing messages of condolence for the martyr Haniyeh” and labeling the action as “censorship, pure and simple.”
The conservative and pro-Erdogan daily newspaper Yeni Safak reported that the decision to block Instagram was influenced by these issues. “Sanctions for Instagram’s blackout policy were swift. The Information Technologies and Communication Authority blocked access to Instagram,” the paper stated.
Instagram has been contacted for comment but has not yet responded.
Haniyeh was reportedly killed by a remotely-activated explosive device in Tehran early Wednesday morning. His death occurred just before he was set to attend the inauguration of Iran’s newly-elected President Masoud Pezeshkian. Turkey has declared a day of mourning, with flags flying at half-mast as a mark of respect. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who described Hamas as “liberation fighters” and has been critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, had last met with Haniyeh in April.
Ekrem Imamoglu, Istanbul’s mayor and a member of Turkey’s main opposition party, criticized the move, describing the communications authority’s actions as a form of “censorship.” Imamoglu wrote on X, “Social media is a platform that everyone uses for many purposes, including for commerce and communicating. It is unacceptable that a platform used by the entire country is arbitrarily shut down one morning.”
According to the Freedom of Expression Association, Turkey has blocked access to 953,415 websites based on 821,285 different decisions made by 833 institutions and judicial authorities. Notably, YouTube was previously blocked from 2007 to 2010 for “insulting Turkishness.”
