Istanbul Mayor protests Instagram ban in Turkey by posting live IG feed

The Mayor of Istanbul on Friday broadcast an Instagram livestream denouncing the Turkish government’s earlier decision to ban the social media app throughout the nation, local Turkish news outlet DuvarEnglish reports.

Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) announced its decision on Friday without explanation.

Media reports in the Middle Eastern country have said the court order may be some form of retaliation for the Zuckerberg-owned app’s removal of condolence posts after the assassination of top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh earlier this week.

DuvarEnglish said the authority had requested Instagram remove content that constituted "catalog crimes.”

In response to the block, Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Israel Katz, also posted on X, calling out the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for his stance “against the entire free world,” stating that he was “turning Turkey into a dictatorship.”

“He blocks Instagram, which has 57 million users in Turkey,” Katz said in the lengthy post, sure to inflame already tense relations between the nations.

.@RTErdogan, tüm özgür dünyanın duruşuna karşı, sadece Hamas'ın katillerine ve tecavüzcülerine verdiği destek uğruna Türkiye'yi bir diktatörlüğe dönüştürüyor.

Türkiye'de 57 milyon kullanıcısı olan Instagram'ı engelliyor, İsrailli bir atlet bir Türk atleti yendi diye spor… pic.twitter.com/LFYbTqaPRc

undefined ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) August 2, 2024

According to the Turkish non-profit organization Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD), which advocates for and protects such freedoms, in 2022 alone, ICTA banned access to nearly 138,000 websites, the news outlet said.

Turkey’s Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu on Friday said the agency had “warned Instagram about certain offenses.”

“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. " Uraloglu said.

The minister also said the agency was in contact with Instagram representatives in Turkey and that “as soon as the “deficiencies are eliminated, “we will remove the restrictions.”

“Our sensitivities are clear. This is a country with laws and rules." Uraloglu added.

Instagram has not publicly commented on the ban as of Friday.

Istanbul Mayor says nationwide ban "unacceptable"

Meantime, the Major of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu, took to both his Insta and X account on Friday to speak out about the ban.

During the Instagram live, the Mayor called the restrictions “a banal, pointless, and powerless executives' procedure,” according to DuvarEnglish.

“This is not how you solve problems,” he said to those watching.

“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,” İmamoğlu said, the independent Turkish news outlet reported.

Istanbul Mayor İmamoğlu protests Instagram ban on live Instagram broadcast https://t.co/fkrbT730bn

undefined Duvar English (@DuvarEnglish) August 2, 2024

The major then took to X to post his view on the matter. “Social media is a platform that everyone uses for many purposes, including trade and communication,” he posted, translated to English.

“It is unacceptable for a media channel used by the whole country to be arbitrarily closed one morning,” he wrote, adding that Turkey’s communications agency “should stop working as a censorship unit.”

“Instagram should be opened as soon as possible,” he said.

Sosyal medya; her kesimin ticaret, haberleşme dahil birçok amaçla kullandığı bir platformdur. Bir sabah tüm ülkenin kullandığı bir mecranın keyfi olarak kapanması kabul edilemez. Instagram bir an önce açılmalı, iletişimden sorumlu akıllar sansür birimi gibi çalışmayı bırakmalı.

undefined Ekrem İmamoğlu (@ekrem_imamoglu) August 2, 2024

According to its website, the ICTA enacts license agreements, regulates personal telecommunications facilities, and develops standards for telecommunications equipment. It also controls and monitors the telecommunications sector.

Haniyeh was killed in a suspected Israeli airstrike in Tehran on Wednesday just hours after a top Hezbollah leader was killed in Beirut.

The Turkish president’s communications director Fahrettin Altun had criticized the platform for blocking the condolence posts on Wednesday.

"This is censorship, pure and simple," Altun said on X.

Hundreds of thousands of mourners in Iran are attending the Palestinian Hamas chief’s funeral on Friday, as well as other ceremony’s held around the region.

ICTA published the decision on its website, according to Reuters. Instagram has not commented on the ban.