Turkey's communications authority blocked access to social media platform Instagram on Friday, the latest crackdown on websites in the country.
The Information and Communications Technology Authority, which regulates the internet, announced the block on Friday morning but did not give a reason. The newspaper Sabah, close to the government, said access was blocked in response to Instagram removing posts by Turkish users expressing condolences over the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
The blocking came days after Fahrettin Altun, the presidential communications director and an aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, criticized the Meta-owned platform for preventing users in Turkey from posting condolence messages for Haniyeh.
Unlike its Western allies, Turkey does not consider Hamas a terror organization. A fierce critic of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, Erdogan has described the group as “freedom fighters.”
The country commemorates Haniyeh's day of mourning on Friday, by flying the flag at half-mast.
Turkey has a track record of censoring social media and websites. Hundreds of thousands of domains have been blocked since 2022, according to the Freedom of Expression Association, a nonprofit that brings together human rights lawyers and activists. The video-sharing platform YouTube was blocked from 2007 to 2010. (ft/es)
