Turkey on Friday blocked access to the Instagram social media network, the national communications authority said without explanation, following censorship accusations against the US company by a high-ranking Turkish official, AFP reports.

 

The BTK communications authority said in a post on its website that “instagram.com has been blocked by a decision on the date of 02/08/2024”, without adding further details.

 

Many users living in Turkey complained on the X platform that they could not refresh their Instagram feed, an issue verified by AFP journalists.

 

The Turkish presidency’s communications director Fahrettin Altun on Wednesday hit out at Meta-owned Instagram, accusing the platform of “impeding people from publishing messages of condolence for the martyr Haniyeh”.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

The decision sparked mockery on other social media networks such as 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.