Turkey, Bangladesh Ban Instagram, Others

The governments of Turkey and Bangladesh banned the use of Instagram by its citizens on Friday.

Turkey

The national communications authority announced the ban on Instagram after a top government official slammed the social media platform for “censoring” Hamas-related content.

The communications authority BTK announced the block on Friday, without giving an explanation for the decision or stating the duration of the ban.

The move follows 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.

“This is censorship, pure and simple,” Altun, the communications director of the Turkish presidency, said on X, adding that Instagram had not cited any policy violations for its action.

“We will continue to defend freedom of expression against these platforms, which have repeatedly shown that they serve the global system of exploitation and injustice.

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“We will stand by our Palestinian brothers at every opportunity and on every platform,” Altun said.

Bangladesh

The Government of Bangladesh on Friday banned the use of Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, YouTube and other social media networks by its citizens.

Global Eyes News disclosed this in its official X account on Friday.

Bangladesh’s ban affects popular social networking services such as Meta-owned Instagram and TikTok and Alphabet’s YouTube. This action restricts access to these widely-used apps throughout the country.

Bangladesh restricted access to Facebook, this time specifically on mobile networks. Russian messaging platform Telegram has also been blocked on mobile connections, says a report by Daily Bangladesh.

This follows a previous shutdown of Meta’s platforms, including Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, from July 17 to July 31, which was implemented in response to unrest related to quota reform protests.

Sources, as cited by the report, indicated that access to Meta’s platforms via mobile networks was cut off around 12:15 PM on Friday. The restrictions appear to be limited to mobile data connections, as opposed to the more comprehensive shutdown imposed earlier.

The country’s Internet speed had reportedly returned to normal levels on Thursday night.

In the middle of July, when student demonstrations spread across various regions of Bangladesh, the government declared suspension of Internet services nationwide.

This announcement, made on July 18, sent shockwaves through the refugee communities residing in Cox’s Bazar, who viewed the impending Internet shutdown as a potential crisis, according to a report by Benar News.