Erdoğan accuses social media platforms of ‘digital fascism’ amid Instagram battle

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused social media networks of “fascism” and censorship on Monday as his government blocked Instagram for a fourth day, Agence France-Presse reported.

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.

The Turkish Telecommunications Authority (BTK) ordered access to Instagram frozen on Friday, without giving a reason. Company representatives have been summoned to a government meeting on Monday.

“We are facing digital fascism,” Erdoğan told officials from his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara on Monday.

He said social network platforms “cannot even tolerate photos of Palestinian martyrs, immediately ban them and market this as freedom,” he said.

“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 Erdoğan’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, accused Instagram of preventing people posting messages of condolence over the assassination of Ismael Haniyeh, political leader of the Palestinian group Hamas and a close ally of Erdoğan.

Haniyeh was killed in Tehran on Wednesday in an attack blamed on Israel.

Double standards

Erdoğan 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 Uraloğlu 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 of Atatürk,” the founding father of modern Turkey, and “… pedophilia.”

Erdoğan said the government had tried to “establish a dialogue” with the platforms but had not yet “managed to fully achieve cooperation.”

Uraloğlu said on the X platform that he was “hoping for positive developments” from Monday’s meeting.

The Instagram freeze has hit numerous businesses who rely on the platform.

Emre Ekmekçi, vice president of the e-commerce operators’ association, estimated the ban was costing 1.9 billion Turkish lira, or nearly $57 million, a 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.

‘OPEN UP!’

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 Özgür Demirtaş 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 swaths of the economy.

“I don’t understand people who are happy about influencers being out of a job,” he said on X.

“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 that sell their merchandise and craft products through e-commerce.

He said it would affect major brands, for which Instagram was “a massive advertising platform”; public institutions that publish announcements on the network; and the tourist industry, which finds hotel and restaurant clients through it.

“I hope this is a mistake that will be corrected as soon as possible,” he said, adding that the authorities needed to provide “explanations.”

Turkish authorities have temporarily blocked access to social media sites, including Facebook, X and Wikipedia in the past.

Erdoğan’s government is regularly accused of muzzling freedom of expression.