Turkey blocks Instagram for second day, amid censorship accusations

Instagram users in Turkey found access to the social media network blocked for a second day on Saturday, following censorship accusations against the US company from a high-ranking Turkish official.

The BTK communications authority announced on its website on Friday that the Meta-owned platform had been frozen, without giving any reason.

But Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said on Friday Instagram had ignored government demands for it to remove certain posts.

"Our country has values and sensitivities. Despite our warnings, they did not take care of criminal content.

"We blocked access. When they abide by our laws, we'll lift the ban."

On Wednesday, the president's communications director, Fahrettin Altun, had accused Instagram of censure, saying it was "preventing people from publishing messages of condolence for the martyr (Hamas leader Ismail) Haniyeh".

"This is a very clear and obvious attempt at censure," Altun said on X.

Haniyeh, the political leader of Palestinian group Hamas and a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was killed in Tehran on Wednesday in an attack blamed on Israel.

Erdogan decreed a national day of mourning in memory of Haniyeh, who played a key role in talks aimed at ending nearly 10 months of deadly war in Gaza.

An anonymous BTK source denied the move was due to Instagram blocking posts about Haniyeh, telling website Medyascope that it was due to "insults to Ataturk", the founding father of modern Turkey, and "crimes" including "drug games (and) paedophilia".

The social-democrat and nationalist opposition parties, and the Ankara legal profession petitioned the courts on Friday evening for the freeze to be lifted.

According to Turkish media, 50 million of the country's 85 million people have an Instagram account.

This is not the first time that Turkish authorities have temporarily blocked access to social media sites, including Facebook, X and Wikipedia.

Erdogan's government is regularly accused of muzzling freedom of expression.