Turkey’s Instagram ban has been taken to court. Negotiations are ongoing to reopen the platform, but a solution has yet to be reached.
Yaman Akdeniz from Bilgi University Faculty of Law shared the following about the legal step he took from his X account: He conveyed: “Together with Kerem Altıparmak, I applied to Ankara 13th Administrative Court to cancel BTK’s Instagram decision, claiming that it is unconstitutional. We filed an annulment case. We requested that the file be sent to the Constitutional Court by way of objection. We are following as always. The petition states that the blocking of access to Instagram seriously violates freedom of expression and will cause irreparable damage to users. It was requested that a stay of execution be issued immediately without consulting the defendant administration. More importantly, it was requested that the decision be based on Article 8, paragraph 4 of Law No. 5651 be appealed to the Constitutional Court on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. In our application as a user, we claimed that not only our freedom of expression but also the right to apply to the competent authority, guaranteed by Article 40 of the Constitution, was violated by the failure to share the BTK decision with the public.
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It has also been stated that the Constitutional Court, in all its decisions regarding platforms, has concluded that the restriction of access to websites by administrative and judicial authorities has not been demonstrated with a relevant and sufficient justification.
As the Constitutional Court has also stated, it is clear that the state and administrative authorities must be very sensitive in the regulations and practices to be made regarding the Internet. In this context, while the BTK’s demands are fulfilled by Instagram and there is no unlawful behavior in terms of catalog crimes, the total access blocking application applied to Instagram is arbitrary, disproportionate and unlawful.”
Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Ömer Fatih Sayan said the following about the ban last week: had conveyed: “When it comes to Western countries, we see that social media platforms are taking precautions quickly on many issues, especially Catalogue Crimes. We have been demanding the same sensitivity and fair stance from the beginning. We want these platforms to have the same safe, clean and fair content mechanism that they offer in countries where they abide by the rules, in Turkey. This double standard applied by providers is a common problem for the whole world. Let’s remember; we said, come open representative offices in our country and prevent the rights violations of our people. They did not want to come.
They did not take the necessary steps against the crimes reported to them. We said let’s build a cleaner internet together, let our people find someone to talk to, they did some show business with some virtual offices. We prevented all these backstabbing with the changes we made in the law. We see that they are still trying to maintain the same understanding. They say, “I read what I know, I publish what I want, I don’t publish what I want.” We did not accept this, we will not accept it. We will do whatever it takes to establish a cleaner and safer social media environment that respects our values, is free of disinformation.”