Turkey has banned Instagram following a row over the site’s alleged crackdown on users sharing condolences for late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
The country’s Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) published the decision on its website on Friday, but gave no official reason for the ban.
“Instagram.com has been blocked by the decision of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority dated 02/08/2024 and numbered 490.05.01.2024.-608983,” the site said.
Turkish officials have offered their condolences following Haniyeh’s death, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declaring 2 August a national day of mourning.
“May God have mercy on my brother Ismail Haniyeh, fallen in martyrdom after this odious attack,” Erdogan wrote on social media on Thursday, further denouncing “Zionist barbarity.”
On Wednesday, the Turkish presidency’s director of communications Fahrettin Altun slammed Instagram, claiming it was “impeding people from publishing messages of condolence for the martyr Haniyeh.”
“This is censorship, pure and simple,” he said on X (formerly Twitter).
Turkey regularly blocks social media platforms, usually in the wake of disasters such as earthquakes or terror attacks, citing either national security or the spread of misinformation.
Critics usually accuse the authorities of trying to stifle criticism of the government.
Turkish digital rights expert Yaman Akdeniz condemned the Instagram ban as “arbitrary” and said it needed court approval to be legal.
“No judge should approve such a request,” he wrote.
Middle East Eye contacted Instagram’s parent company Meta for a comment but had received no response at the time of publication.
According to a report in the New York Times on Thursday, Haniyeh was assassinated by an explosive device that was secretly smuggled into Tehran weeks ago.
Citing seven Middle Eastern officials and a US official, the report said a bomb had been hidden in a guesthouse in the capital run by Iran‘s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) around two months ago.
Haniyeh had stayed in the guesthouse on several occasions while visiting Tehran, according to the sources. The explosion also killed the Hamas political leader’s bodyguard.
Iranian sources, however, have dismissed the claim that a bomb was used as false.