, part of the opposition-run İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality, has announced that a ban on the Instagram social media network costs Turkey TL 1.9 billion ($56.9 million) a day.){kind=link}
The president of the İstanbul Planning Agency (IPA), part of the opposition-run İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality, has announced that a ban on the Instagram social media network costs Turkey TL 1.9 billion ($56.9 million) a day.
Turkey on Friday blocked access to Instagram without explanation, following censorship accusations against the US company by the Turkish presidency’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun.
Altun on Wednesday hit out at Meta-owned Instagram, accusing the platform of “impeding people from publishing messages of condolence for the martyr Haniyeh.”
Ismail Haniyeh, the political chief of the Palestinian group Hamas and a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was killed in Tehran on Wednesday in an attack blamed on Israel.
“This is a very clear and obvious attempt at censorship,” Altun said on X.
Referring to the continuing ban, İPA President Buğra Gökce on Sunday said on X that it costs Turkey TL 1.9 billion per day.
💥 Yasaklanan Instagram, Yoksullaşan Türkiye!
🔴Instagram’ın kapalı kalmasının Türkiye ekonomisine günlük maliyeti: 1,9 milyar lira.
🔴 “Kamuda Tasarruf Paketi”nin toplam boyutu 100 milyar liraydı. Eğer Instagram sadece 52 gün kapalı kalırsa Türkiye tasarruf paketi kadar zarar… pic.twitter.com/0eTogi92gp
— Dr. Buğra Gökce (@gokcebugra) August 4, 2024
He said that the businesses most affected by the Instagram ban would be small and medium-sized enterprises, adding that the negative impact of the ban would be felt the most in the economies of İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Bursa and Antalya provinces.
“When we look at the data, we must ask: Was this punishment meted out to Instagram or to Turkey?” Gökçe said.
He also said that the consequences of such steps taken by the government “unlawfully and without any consideration” will be borne solely by the people.
Meanwhile, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat on Monday responded to claims that the ban will affect Turkey’s online commerce, saying that although Instagram allows businesses and individuals to promote their goods and services, the contract for their provision is not made through the platform.
“Sales conducted directly through communication tools [such as a phone number or the WhatsApp app] based on promotions made on Instagram and similar social media platforms are not classified as electronic commerce,” he said.
Bolat added that unregistered sales made through Instagram lead to a decrease in tax revenue, also claiming that these sellers give themselves an unfair advantage over businesses that fulfill their legal obligations, creating unfair competition.
His remarks came as the Turkey representatives of the platform, which is owned by Facebook parent Meta, were to meet with Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu to discuss the ban on Monday.
The social-democrat and nationalist opposition parties along with Ankara legal professionals petitioned the courts on Friday evening for the freeze to be lifted.
According to Turkish media, 50 million of the country’s 85 million people have an Instagram account.
This is not the first time that Turkish authorities have temporarily blocked access to social media sites, including Facebook, X and Wikipedia.
Wikipedia was blocked between April 2017 and January 2020 over two articles that alleged a link between the presidency and extremism.
That caused shock in a country where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government is often accused of attacking civil freedoms due to the amount of online information that became inaccessible.
In April Facebook owner Meta suspended its Threads social network in Turkey following a decision by authorities there to prevent it from sharing information with Instagram.