Istanbul Mayor İmamoğlu protests Instagram ban on live Instagram broadcast

Duvar English

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on Aug. 2 protested the government’s restriction of Instagram in the country.

Turkey's infotech regulator Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) on Aug. 2 blocked the social media platform Instagram for not complying with the authority's request to remove content that constituted "catalog crimes.”

İmamoğlu protested the ban on a live broadcast on Instagram.

He deemed the restriction “a banal, pointless, and powerless executives' procedure. This is not how it should be done, this is not how you solve problems. Or you cannot be held accountable for the fact that making up an excuse and banning in this way will evolve into different practices tomorrow.”

“I see today's restriction as an intervention in freedoms. I regret that they resorted to such an intervention. This is of no benefit to this country, to our nation. Please do not restrict anyone's access rights,” he added.

In another social media post, İmamoğlu said, “Social media is a platform used by all segments of society for many purposes, including trade and communication. It is unacceptable to arbitrarily shut down a platform used by the whole country one morning. Instagram should be opened as soon as possible, and the minds in charge of communication should stop working like a censorship unit.”

The ban followed comments on July 31 by Turkish communications official Fahrettin Altun, criticizing the platform for what he called its decision to block condolence posts on the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, a key official of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

In a press conference, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Abdülkadir Uraloğlu argued “Especially if they do not take into account both the rules we set legally and some of our social sensitivities, we have to make the necessary interventions. Our friends are in talks with (Instagram’s) representative of Turkey. Our sensitivities are clear. The deficiencies there are clear. As soon as they eliminate those deficiencies, we will (immediately) remove the restriction.”

Banning access to websites is a common practice of the Turkish government. Turkey issued access bans to at least 137,717 websites in 2022, the Freedom of Expression Association’s (İFÖD) revealed.

The Constitutional Court (AYM) recently ruled “violation of freedom of expression” in more than 500 applications against online access blocking and content removal decisions.