ISTANBUL: Turkiye blocked access to the Instagram network on Friday, without giving any official explanation, following censorship accusations against the US company from a high-ranking Turkish official.

Many users living in Turkiye complained on the X platform that they could not refresh their Instagram feed. The communications authority announced on its website on Friday that the Meta-owned platform had been blocked.

It did not give a reason, but an official told Turkish media it was because of “criminal content” on Instagram that the latter had been asked to withdraw.

The president’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, had on Wednesday accused Instagram of censure, saying it was “preventing people from publishing messages of condolence for the martyr Haniyeh”.

“This is a very clear and obvious attempt at censure,” Altun said on X. An anonymous source denied the move was due to Instagram blocking posts about Haniyeh, telling website Medyascope that it was over “insults to Ataturk”, the founding father of modern Turkiye, and crimes including “drug games (and) paedophilia”.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2024