Turkey has blocked access to Instagram, reportedly due to the death of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. This is part of a broader trend of social media restrictions in Turkey, which has shut down hundreds of thousands of websites since 2022. The Information and Communication Technologies Authority has not provided a reason, but Turkish reports link it to Instagram’s handling of condolence messages for Haniyeh.
Tehran was flooded with a mourning procession for Haniyeh, while Turkey’s flags are currently at half staff. (Source: Associated Press)
In the past, the Ankara authorities has claimed that Instagram had been censoring posts from Turkish users expressing grief over Haniyeh’s passing.
On Wednesday, Turkey’s communications director Fahrettin Altun wrote on X that Instagram was “impeding people from publishing messages of condolence for the martyr Haniyeh”, adding that it was “censorship, pure and simple”.
Yeni Safak, a conservative and pro-Erdogan daily newspaper with close ties to the government, said this was behind the authority’s decision.
Ismail Haniyeh was killed by a hidden explosive device in Tehran on Wednesday morning (AP). Turkey does not consider Hamas a terror organization, with President Erdogan calling them “liberation fighters.” The country has been critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Turkey will observe a day of mourning for Haniyeh on Friday, with flags at half-mast. Haniyeh, a close ally of Erdogan, was killed by a remotely-activated explosive device in his guest house before attending the inauguration of Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, criticized the communications authority for acting like a “censorship unit,” calling the shutdown of Instagram arbitrary.
Turkey blocked access to 953,415 websites, according to the Freedom of Expression Association. YouTube was previously blocked between 2007 and 2010 for “insulting Turkishness.”
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