Instagram ban and freedoms in Türkiye: Even China looks better

We thought China was the last country where we weren’t embarrassed about freedom of expression, but thanks to the Instagram ban, we’ve learned we’ve managed to fall behind even them, according to Maruf Buzcugil’s article in Ekonomim newspaper. Instagram is also banned in China, but the Communist Party government turns a blind eye to university students using VPNs to connect to the outside world.

Our colleague, who recently returned from China with a group of journalists, wrote, “We couldn’t explain to these young officials, who wanted to add us to their social media accounts, that we couldn’t access our own Instagram accounts due to the ban in our country. Because Türkiye had been taught to them as a country with freedom of thought, where social media accounts can be freely accessed.”

It’s easy to say people in Türkiye can just use VPNs, but there’s a list of banned VPNs in Türkiye. Even from China’s perspective, Türkiye has begun to be seen as a country of bans. Recently, the Constitutional Court announced that the Disinformation Center’s operations under the Presidential Decree were unconstitutional, violating both freedom of expression and press freedom. The increasingly oppressive nature of restrictions and bans has begun to be discussed in terms of their negative impact on the economy.

Harm to both politics and business

Even before this Instagram ban, news was circulating about the negative effects of access restrictions, including VPNs, on production and trade. The Electronic Commerce Operators Association claims this ban costs the economy 1.9 billion liras per day.

IT entrepreneur Erdem Erkul pointed out another danger on his X account.

“While trying to access Instagram, all data traffic is flowing through VPNs. I see this as a national security risk, especially for banking and other sectors,” he posted.

The ASAL research company attempted to predict the potential political impact of the Instagram ban.

According to company executive Adem Belede’s X account post, “The closure of Instagram access has already caused AKP to lose 2 percentage points in votes. If the closure decision is prolonged, this loss is likely to increase.”

MetroPoll research company executive Özer Sencar says that according to July results, AKP’s votes were at their lowest level since they came to power on November 3, 2002, even before this ban.

So how did this ban, harmful to both politics and business, come about?

The inside story of the Instagram ban

Events began with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran on July 31, followed by Communications Director Fahrettin Altun’s condemnation and condolence message on his X account that same night. Towards the end of his lengthy message, Altun said:

“I strongly condemn the social media platform Instagram, which prevents people from posting condolence messages for Haniyeh’s martyrdom without giving any reason. This is a clear and blatant attempt at censorship.”

Apparently, Altun wanted to post the message he shared on X on Instagram as well, but it was blocked. Indeed, this could be considered a hindrance to freedom of expression and an attempt at censorship.

But the problem started after this.

Following this message, the Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK), which is directly affiliated with the Presidency just like the Directorate of Communications, met the next day on August 1 and imposed an access ban effective August 2.

The cause-and-effect relationship of the ban is clear.

The government is making millions of users in Türkiye and Türkiye’s already poor freedom of expression record pay for Instagram’s mistake.

Who benefits?

CHP’s Namık Tan commented on these developments on his X account, without naming names but in harsh terms:

“The propaganda director, enraged by this situation, probably not wanting to fall behind his rivals within the palace in the race to please the sultan, had access to the platform in question blocked from Türkiye.”

Meanwhile, let’s also note a message about freedom of expression from Mehmet Uçum, Chief Legal Advisor and another key figure in the Beştepe team, which I believe will not make Türkiye proud in the future:

“For genuine freedom of expression, all destructive and harmful forms of expression that appear as freedom of expression must be prevented through legal means.”

The AKP government, which on one hand works on “Türkiye’s Century” and “Ankara Criteria” and calls on the opposition for a “Libertarian Constitution,” has put itself in a serious dilemma with the Instagram ban: If it continues the ban, its political and economic losses will increase, but if it lifts the ban without Instagram backing down, it will have failed to achieve its goal.

Does this prohibitive mentality benefit efforts to overcome the economic crisis, AKP’s recovery after the March 31 elections, or Türkiye’s democracy scorecard?

Erdoğan: Fighters or reconcilers?

President Tayyip Erdoğan, who will answer these questions, can do a favor to himself, Türkiye, and all of us. That is to listen not to people around him who poison the atmosphere of political normalization for the sake of their own positions, but to those who favor reconciliation over conflict.

Do you remember, in 2009 and 2010, whenever Erdoğan was about to make a move against the Gülenists in the police and judiciary, files like “We prevented an assassination” or “The danger is great” would be placed before him; thus, the fighters of that time would have protected their own positions.

We know the outcome.

Politics and the economy are on the brink of a global crisis. On top of concerns about the spread of wars, a wave of stock market and financial crisis, already raising fears of a “Black Monday,” is coming.

While grappling with severe foreign policy and security problems, is it more appropriate to further sharpen the political atmosphere with pressure and bans, or to maintain political dialogue with the opposition? The answer to whether he should listen more to the fighters or the reconcilers lies here.

The Instagram ban is just one example of this, but it’s sufficiently cautionary.