Following Turkey’s decision to block Instagram on Friday, many Turkish users took to the social media platform X to express frustration over their inability to update their feeds. The national communications authority, BTK, announced the block without providing further details, stating that “instagram.com has been blocked by a decision on the date of 02/08/2024.” Fahrettin Altun, Turkey’s communications director, accused Instagram of censoring posts related to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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Altun criticized the move as a clear attempt at censorship. In response, Turkish users have reacted with humor and discontent on other social media platforms. The hashtag “X when Turks wake up to find that Instagram is blocked” and memes depicting dismay over the block have gone viral. This is not the first time Turkey has restricted social media access; Wikipedia was blocked between April 2017 and January 2020, and Meta’s Threads social network was halted in Turkey earlier this year due to data-sharing issues.
