TPC Staff
The Palestine Chronicle / August 2, 2024
Türkiye’s Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) published the August 2 decision on its website.
Turkey has blocked access to the social media platform, Instagram, the infotech regulator said today, without providing detailed information about the reason or duration for the ban.
The platform’s mobile app was also made inaccessible, Reuters reports.
The move followed comments made on Wednesday by Turkish communications official Fahrettin Altun, who criticized the platform for what he called its decision to block condolence posts on the assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
“I strongly condemn the social media platform Instagram which is actively preventing people from posting messages of condolences for the passing of Hamas leader Haniyeh without citing any policy violations,” he wrote on X.
“This is censorship, pure and simple,” he wrote.
Altun added: “We will defend freedom of speech against these platforms that have showed many times that they are primarily in the service of global exploitative system of injustice. We will stand with our Palestinian brothers and sisters in every opportunity and in every platform.”
There was no immediate comment from Instagram parent Meta Platforms Inc META on either the ban or Altun’s comments.
Turkey’s Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) published the August 2 decision on its website.
Israel killed the leader of Hamas, who also served as the prime minister of the state of Palestine in the past, during an official visit to Tehran.
The murder of Haniyeh, who has been spending months pushing for a ceasefire that would see a prisoner exchange and an end to the Israeli war on Gaza, has ignited anger throughout the Middle East and parts of the world.
Iran has vowed to respond to his murder.
