Sixty-one bar associations across Turkey have issued a joint statement urging the government to lift the recently imposed access ban on Instagram.
This ban, which has affected nearly 58 million users in the country, was enacted by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) following the government’s criticism of the platform’s alleged censorship of condolences for killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. However, the government did not specify the formal reason for the ban.
Two meetings between government officials and Instagram representatives did not yield a positive result.
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In their statement, the bar associations criticized the ban's lack of transparency and its impact on constitutional rights, stating, "The access ban to Instagram affects millions of our citizens who rely on this platform for communication, news, and commerce."
The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure justified the ban, claiming that Instagram had not complied with requirements related to ‘catalog crimes,’ a category that includes serious offenses like incitement to violence and drug promotion. However, the bar associations questioned the legal basis of the ban, pointing out a lack of clarity regarding the specific content that allegedly prompted the ban.
"The decision-making process behind the ban has not been adequately explained to the public. There is no information on what specific content was deemed objectionable, which prosecutors or courts issued removal orders, or whether Instagram refused to comply with such requests," the bar associations stated. They argued that the process appears not to comply with Turkey's Law No. 5651 on Internet Crimes.
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The associations emphasized that the ban constitutes a violation of freedom of expression and the press, protected under the Turkish Constitution. They stated, "This ban is a severe infringement on citizens' rights to freedom of expression and communication and acts as a form of censorship against the press."
The statement concluded with a call for the government to lift the ban immediately, allowing citizens to exercise their constitutional rights. "As bar associations, we expect public authorities to open Instagram to access without delay and to end this unlawful practice that prevents citizens from using their constitutional rights," they urged.
(AS/VK)
