LGBTI+ rights group's Instagram account banned as censorship continues during Pride Month
Instagram blocked access to the account of Kaos GL, one of Turkey's oldest LGBTI+ rights advocacy groups and a news outlet, complying with court orders demanding blocks citing "national security and the protection of public order."
The news outlet's editor-in-chief, Yıldız Tar, has been jailed since Jun 25 as part of a "terror" probe launched ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara scheduled for July.
Kaos GL said the accounts of İstanbul Pride Week, İstanbul Trans Pride Week, Ankara Pride, and İzmir Pride were also made invisible within Turkey under court orders. The accounts remain visible from other countries.
Throughout Pride Month this year, accounts of LGBTI+ associations, organizations producing content on LGBTI+ rights, journalists, and individual rights defenders were blocked by X and Instagram following court orders. A number of dating applications preferred by queer users were also blocked.
Turkey blocks access to LGBTI+ dating apps
Instagram's censorship policy
The content moderation policy of Instagram has drawn criticism for years, particularly regarding protests and human rights issues.
Instagram says that it generally acts based on "community guidelines, automated moderation, and government requests" regarding such censorship.
Users reported that the visibility of stories, hashtags, and posts about Palestine has been reduced since 2021. Some content was removed or algorithmically suppressed due to reasons such as "violence" or "links to terrorism," which human rights organizations criticized as "disproportionate content moderation."
During the 2020 George Floyd protests in the US, some users reported that BlackLivesMatter content did not appear on the explore page, hashtags were restricted, or temporary search issues occurred. Meta explained this as a "technical error."
Kurdish posts, political content, or certain news pages in Turkey are also periodically removed or restricted from access based on "community guidelines."
(TY/VK)
