Turkey blocked access to the Instagram social media network Friday. The country’s communications authority announced the blockade, following censorship accusations against Instagram by a high-ranking Turkish official.
Without justification, the BTK communications authority said in a post on its website, “Instagram.com has been blocked by a decision on the date of 02/08/2024.”
The Turkish presidency’s communications director Fahrettin Altun on Wednesday hit out at Instagram, accusing the platform of “impeding people from publishing messages of condolence for the martyr Haniyeh,” according to AFP.
Ismail Haniyeh, the political chief of the armed 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.
“This is a very clear and obvious attempt at censure,” Altun said on X.