ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s government will hold talks with Instagram officials on Monday after blocking access to the social media platform last week, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said in a post on X.
The move came after a senior Turkish official accused Instagram of blocking condolence posts following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Uraloglu said Turkey had expressed certain sensitivities regarding compliance with Turkish laws in a previous meeting with representatives of Instagram last week.
Turkish communications official Fahrettin Altun on Wednesday criticised Instagram for alleged “censorship, pure and simple,” over what he called its decision to bar condolence posts for Haniyeh after his killing in Iran’s capital Tehran on July 31.
Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of carrying out the strike that killed Haniyeh hours after he attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president. Israel has not claimed responsibility.
Turkey ranks fifth in the world in terms of Instagram usage, with some 57 million users, following India, the U.S., Brazil and Indonesia, according to data platform Statista.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ezgi Erkoyun; Writing by Burcu Karakas; Editing by Daren Butler and Mark Heinrich)
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