Istanbul (AFP) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused social media networks of “fascism” and censorship on Monday as his government blocked Instagram for a fourth day. The US-owned platform, which has an estimated 50-60 million subscribers in Turkey, has been accused by government officials of censorship and failing to remove posts the authorities deem offensive. Turkey’s BTK communications authority ordered access to Instagram frozen on Friday, without giving a reason. Company representatives were summoned to a government meeting on Monday that failed to resolve their differences.
“We are facing digital fascism,” Erdogan told officials from his ruling Truth and Justice (AKP) party. He said social network platforms “cannot even tolerate photos of Palestinian martyrs without immediately banning them.” “These companies have declared war, in the virtual world, on the glorious resistance and heroes of the Palestinian people. They act like the mafia every time their interests are at stake.”
Last Wednesday, Erdogan’s communications director Fahrettin Altun accused Instagram of preventing people from posting messages of condolence over the assassination of Ismael Haniyeh, political leader of the Palestinian group Hamas and a close ally of Erdogan’s. Haniyeh was killed in Tehran on Wednesday in an attack blamed on Israel.
Erdogan said social media networks “respect the rules in America and Europe but deliberately ignore them when it comes to fighting unlawful content in Turkey.” Transport and infrastructure minister, Abdulkadir Uraloglu, said on Friday that Instagram, which is owned by US tech giant Meta, had been suspended for ignoring demands to remove “criminal content.” An anonymous BTK source said this included “insults to Ataturk,” the founding father of modern Turkey, “drug games (and) paedophilia.”
After the meeting with company representatives, Uraloglu said that the government “did not get the results we wanted” but would “continue to discuss in an active manner.” The Instagram freeze has hit numerous businesses that rely on the platform. The vice-president of the e-commerce operators’ association, Emre Ekmekci, estimated the ban was costing 1.9 billion Turkish lira, or nearly $57 million, per day in lost business. Ten percent of online retail sales in Turkey are conducted through social media — amounting to 930 million lira per day, he told the private CNCB-E television.
Between 60 and 70 percent of Turkey’s 85 million inhabitants have an Instagram account. “Hundreds of thousands of people find customers (and) do business on Instagram,” professor of finance Ozgur Demirtas said on X. “Thousands of people on Instagram set up export links (and) pay TAX,” he added in a message that ended: “OPEN UP!”
Online content creator Ozan Sihay said the suspension would affect whole swathes of the economy. “This ban will harm numerous sectors and individuals,” he said, listing “advertisers who’ve paid thousands of lira”; artists and creators of music and film for whom “Instagram is an important showcase”; and small businesses who sell their merchandise and craft products through e-commerce. He said it would affect major brands, for whom Instagram was “a massive advertising platform”; public institutions who publish announcements on the network; and the tourist industry, who find hotel and restaurant clients through it.
Turkish authorities have temporarily blocked access to social media sites, including Facebook, X, and Wikipedia in the past. Erdogan’s government is regularly accused of muzzling freedom of expression.
© 2024 AFP
