The messaging app has been ignoring Ankara’s requests to shut down channels selling child porn and drugs, Takvim newspaper claims
Türkiye may block Telegram because the messaging app allegedly failed to cooperate with Turkish authorities, according to Takvim newspaper. Telegram has reportedly ignored over 1,000 requests from Türkiye’s Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK).
On Saturday, Ankara restored access to Instagram after a nine-day ban imposed earlier this month due to alleged censorship.
Türkiye has previously temporarily blocked other platforms and websites. In 2014, authorities banned Twitter and YouTube for two weeks and two months, respectively. Wikipedia was inaccessible from 2017 until 2020 when Türkiye’s Constitutional Court lifted the ban.
Takvim reported that the BTK repeatedly asked Telegram to shut down channels selling drugs and pornographic content, including child pornography. Officials in Ankara also reportedly objected to channels facilitating illegal gambling and prostitution.
The newspaper reported that Telegram refused to provide Turkish authorities with the identities of subscribers and administrators of these channels.
According to the Daily Sabah, Telegram has about eight million users in Türkiye, making it one of the app’s biggest markets.
In early August, the BTK restricted access to Instagram after Fahrettin Altun, Türkiye’s communications chief, criticized Meta’s platform for allegedly preventing “people from posting condolences” after Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a suspected Israeli strike in Tehran last month.
Altun claimed at the time that “this is a very clear and obvious attempt at censorship,” vowing to take action against social media platforms that “serve the global system of exploitation and injustice.”
However, Turkish authorities lifted the ban on Saturday. Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Instagram had “promised to work together to meet our demands regarding catalog crimes and on censorship imposed on users.”