Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused social media of "fascism" and censorship as the Instagram platform was blocked in the country for the fourth day in a row.
The American platform, which has about 50-60 million subscribers in Turkey, has been accused by government officials of censorship and of not removing posts that authorities deem offensive.
Company representatives were invited to a meeting with the government, which failed to resolve the differences.
"We are facing digital fascism," Erdogan told representatives of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). He said platforms "cannot even tolerate pictures of Palestinian martyrs without immediately banning them".
"These companies have declared war on the virtual world of the glorious resistance and heroes of the Palestinian people. They act like a mafia every time their interests are threatened," the head of state added.
A week ago, Turkish presidential communications director Fahrettin Altun accused Instagram of not allowing people to post messages of condolence over the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian group Hamas. Haniya was killed in Tehran in an attack blamed on the state of Israel.
Double standards
Erdogan said social networks "follow the rules in America and Europe, but deliberately ignore them when it comes to fighting illegal content in Turkey."
Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said earlier that Instagram, owned by US tech giant Meta, had been suspended for ignoring requests to remove "criminal content". According to some sources, it is about "insults to Kemal Atatürk", the founder of modern Turkey, "drug games (and) pedophilia".
After the meeting with company representatives, Uraloglu said the government "did not get the results we wanted" but would "continue to discuss the matter actively".
The Instagram freeze affected many businesses that rely on the platform.
Emre Ekmekci, vice president of the Association of E-Commerce Operators, estimated that the ban is costing 1.9 billion Turkish lira, or nearly $57 million, per day in lost business opportunities.
"10% of online retail sales in Turkey are done through social media - amounting to 930 million lira per day," he told private broadcaster CNCB-E.
Between 60 and 70% of Turkey's 85 million people have an Instagram account.
"Hundreds of thousands of people find customers and do business on Instagram," said finance professor Ozgur Demirtaş, quoted by AFP.
"Thousands of people on Instagram are creating export links and paying FEE," he stressed.
In the past, Turkish authorities have temporarily blocked access to Facebook, X and Wikipedia. | BGNES
