On Friday, Turkey's national communications authority, BTK, announced it has blocked access to Instagram after a government official accused the platform of censoring condolence posts related to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. The decision follows comments made on Wednesday by Fahrettin Altun, Turkey's presidency communications director, criticizing Instagram for blocking posts without citing any policy violations.
Ismail Haniyeh, the political chief of Hamas, was killed in Tehran on Wednesday along with his bodyguard, an event Hamas and Iran have blamed on Israel. With over 50 million Instagram users in Turkey, many took to the social media platform X to express their frustration over being unable to access Instagram. Digital law expert Yaman Akdeniz noted that the block occurred around 3:00 AM on Friday following an administrative order, requiring judicial approval.