Top government official accused US-based company of blocking condolence posts on killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Turkey has blocked access to Instagram, the national communications authority said, after a top government official slammed the social media platform for “censoring” Hamas-related content.

The communications authority BTK announced the block on Friday, without giving an explanation for the decision or stating the duration of the ban.

The move follows comments on Wednesday by the Turkish presidency’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, criticising the Meta-owned platform for what he called its decision to block condolence posts on the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

“This is censorship, pure and simple,” Altun wrote on X, noting that Instagram had not cited any policy violations for its decision to block the content.

“We will continue to defend freedom of expression against these platforms, which have repeatedly shown that they serve the global system of exploitation and injustice,” Altun said.

“We will stand by our Palestinian brothers at every opportunity and on every platform,” he said.

Ismail Haniyeh, the political chief of Hamas and a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his bodyguard were killed in Tehran on Wednesday. Hamas and Iran blamed Israel, which has not commented on the attack.

According to Turkish media, there are more than 50 million users signed up to Instagram in Turkey, of a population of 85 million.

Many users in the country took to the X platform on Friday to complain about being unable to refresh their Instagram feed.

“Access to Instagram was blocked (…) around 3:00 AM this morning following an administrative order. The decision was made either by the presidency or a ministry. The BTK must have its decision approved by a judge,” wrote Yaman Akdeniz, a Turkish digital law expert, on X.

“The censorship imposed on Instagram is arbitrary and can never have any explanation or justification. No judge should approve such a request,” he added.

Instagram, Türkiye’de erişime kapatıldı.
Sabahın ilk saatlerinde instagram halkının Twitter’a girişi#instagram pic.twitter.com/V4nFzhx3YO

— Nat Geo Rıdvan (@Rdvngursoy) August 2, 2024

The issue led to mockery on other social media networks, including X.

A meme showing a congested metro station with the tagline: “X when Turks wake up to find that Instagram is blocked”, began trending on the platform.

“Instagram is blocked in Turkey, life is over”, wrote user “CringeOfMaster” alongside a picture of a grieving man.

Others mockingly asked Instagram users where they could see their doctored images now.

There was no immediate comment from Meta Platforms Inc on either the ban or Altun’s statements.