According to the decision of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority, access to Instagram from Turkey was closed as of the morning hours. The Chairman of the Digital Media Commission of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Hatay Deputy Hüseyin Yayman, made special statements to the İhlas News Agency, reacting to the censorship applied by the Meta company towards freedom of expression.
“We never accept the Meta company’s double standards that ignore the law in Turkey”
MP Yayman stated that they never accept the practices carried out by Meta and said, “We never accept the practices carried out by transnational digital companies that ignore the laws, management structures, moral and ethical values of countries. We never accept the Meta company’s double standards that ignore the law in Turkey. While violence against women continues, child abuse and many content related to LGBT issues are shared on the one hand, and sexism and practices that ignore women continue on the other hand, we never find it right that all content related to the death of İsmail Haniye is removed. As the government, we are against censorship, access blocking and bans, but it is a double standard for transnational digital companies to also ignore Turkey, ignore Turkey’s laws and censor the shared content. While Instagram and Meta companies talk about censorship and bans, it is never acceptable for them to do the same bans and censorship themselves. We want digital networks to be accepted as the agora of cities and societies as a square of freedom. We never accept a double standard application that ignores our law and our governance structure. What Instagram and Meta are doing is never acceptable. They are not applications that are compatible with either Turkey's values or universal values. Therefore, we want Instagram to abandon its double standard attitude as soon as possible and ignore posts about Ismail Haniye, who is in the hearts of people who are well-known, or about a nation's hero.
“We never accept unlawful decisions, therefore this decision of Instagram is never acceptable”
Stating that the Meta company’s not allowing the posts made regarding İsmail Haniye does not comply with freedom of expression, MP Yayman said, “We think that the law should apply. The access ban is BTK’s decision. Turkey is a state of law, we never accept unlawful decisions, therefore this decision of Instagram is never acceptable. We invite Instagram to comply with Turkey’s law, to support freedom of expression, and to support posts made regarding public figures, not censor them. As the President of the Digital Media Commission, I condemn this censorship on Instagram and Meta. The stance regarding this period is known by BTK and the decision of our Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. I support BTK’s decision.”
