‘This is censorship, pure and simple.’
ANKARA: Turkey has barred access to social media network Instagram, the infotech regulator said on Friday, without providing a cause or length for the suspension, which also rendered the platform’s mobile app inaccessible.
The move comes after Turkish communications officer Fahrettin Altun criticized the site on Wednesday for blocking sympathy postings in response to the execution of Ismail Haniyeh, a top official of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“This is censorship, pure and simple,” Altun, the Turkish presidency’s communications director, said on X, noting that Instagram had not identified any policy infractions for its move.
Instagram parent Meta Platforms Inc. made no quick response to the suspension or Altun’s statements.
Turkey’s Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) announced the ruling on its website on August 2.__The Friday Times
