UPDATE 2 - Türkiye blocks access to Instagram

UPDATES WITH REMARKS FROM TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE MINISTER

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) – The Turkish Information and Communication Technologies Authority on Friday said it has blocked access to Instagram.

Social media platform service providers respond quickly to many issues in Western countries, particularly those involving crime, said Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Omer Fatih Sayan on X on Friday, adding: "We have been demanding the same sensitivity and fairness."

"We want these platforms to offer the same safe, clean and fair content mechanism in Türkiye as they do in countries where they abide by the rules," he underlined.

This "double standard" applied by social media service providers is a global issue, he said, recalling that when Türkiye previously asked to open representative offices in the country to prevent violations of people's rights, social media platforms refused to come and did not take the necessary steps against the crimes.

"We said let's build a cleaner internet together, let our nation find an interlocutor, they made dummy work with some virtual offices; we prevented all these backstabbing with the law amendments we made," he added.

Commenting on the decision, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said despite warnings from Turkish officials, some social media platforms still violate country regulations.

"We warned them, but since we did not receive a response, so we imposed an access ban. When they meet these deficiencies, (respect) our sensitivities, and the parts that do not comply with our law, we will take the necessary action and lift this access ban," Uraloglu stated.

In 2021, Türkiye enacted a social media law, requiring social media platforms to respond to requests for personal and privacy rights within 48 hours, to show request statistics on personal and privacy rights, to remove illegal content within 24 hours, and to take necessary steps to host Turkish-based users' data in Türkiye.

Social media platforms are still trying to maintain the same understanding by publishing or not publishing what they want, he said, adding: "We did not and will not accept this. We will do whatever it takes to create a cleaner and safer social media that respects our values and is free of disinformation."

On Thursday, Turkish Communications Director Fahrettin Altun criticized the social media platform, saying it "is actively preventing people from posting messages of condolences for the passing of Hamas leader (Ismail) Haniyeh without citing any policy violations."

"This is censorship, pure and simple," he said in a post on X on Wednesday after Haniyeh's assassination in Tehran.

"We will defend freedom of speech against these platforms that have shown many times that they are primarily in the service of a global exploitative system of injustice," he added.

Haniyeh was assassinated on Wednesday in the Iranian capital. While Hamas and Iran blamed Israel for the killing, Tel Aviv has not confirmed or denied its responsibility.