On August 2nd, Turkey blocked access to Instagram. The reason: Instagram was censoring content around the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran in a covert Israeli operation. With over 57 million users, Turkey is Instagram’s fifth largest market in the world, sparking a new crisis for Meta, Instagram’s parent company, who was suddenly forced to contend with governments sympathetic to Hamas, a terrorist group.
Following the ban, Turkey’s president, Recep Erdogan, called out Western technology platforms, accusing them of “digital fascism” and claiming they were muzzling the voice of Palestinian people.
Viewed in isolation, Turkey blocking Instagram over Hamas is bold (Instagram was subsequently unblocked as Meta and Ankara came to an agreement). But, the block on Instagram was only one move, among several, that Turkey has taken since October 7th, representing one of the biggest geopolitical shockwaves caused by the war between Israel and Hamas.
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