Turkey’s infotech regulator announced on Friday that access to the social media platform Instagram had been blocked, without providing a reason or specifying how long the ban would last.
Turkey has blocked access to the social media platform Instagram, as announced by the country’s infotech regulator on Friday. The regulator did not provide a reason or specify the duration of the ban, which also rendered the platform’s mobile app inaccessible.
This action comes after remarks made on Wednesday by Fahrettin Altun, a Turkish communications official, who criticized Instagram for allegedly blocking condolence posts regarding the death of Ismail Haniyeh, a senior official of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“This is censorship, pure and simple,” Altun, the communications director for the Turkish presidency, stated on X, accusing Instagram of not citing any policy violations for its actions.
Instagram’s parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., has not yet commented on the ban or Altun’s accusations.
Turkey’s Information Technologies and Communication Authority published the decision on its website on August 2.
