Following Turkey’s last-week Instagram access ban, President Tayyip Erdogan harshly criticized social media companies on Monday, claiming they aimed to “muzzle the Palestinian people’s voices.” Following the action, which came after a top Turkish official claimed that Instagram had deleted posts expressing condolences for the death of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, discussions between Turkey and the social media platform were underway on Monday.

Turkey has condemned Israel’s attacks on Gaza, demanded an early end to hostilities, and criticized what it views as the West’s unwavering backing for Israel. Erdogan cited Haniyeh’s murder in saying, “We are facing a digital fascism that has no tolerance for even the photographs of Palestinian martyrs and bans them immediately.” “They are resorting to every means to hide Israel’s cruelty and muzzle the Palestinian people’s voices. Especially social media companies have literally become militants,” he said in a speech in the Turkish capital Ankara.

Turkey, a NATO member with a large Muslim population, disagrees with Israel and its Western allies’ claim that Hamas is a terrorist group. “As a result of the block to Instagram in Türkiye, millions of people are being deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends, and businesses are no longer able to reach their customers in the same way,” a spokesperson for Meta, which owns the social media platform, said.

Fahrettin Altun, the head of communications for the Turkish presidency, blasted Instagram on the day of Haniyeh’s murder in Tehran last week, accusing the platform of engaging in “censorship, pure and simple,” due to its decision to prevent posts expressing sympathy for the Hamas leader.

Hours after attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Haniyeh was slain. Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of carrying out the strike. Israel has not assumed accountability.

With almost 57 million users, Turkey is in fifth place globally in terms of Instagram usage, after the United States, Brazil, Indonesia, and India, according to data portal Statista.

In a post on X, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloglu stated that during a previous meeting with Instagram executives last week, Turkey had several concerns about adhering to Turkish law. The 34-year-old Basak, who has over 30,000 followers on Instagram and operates a handmade jewelry design account, was among many who expressed dissatisfaction with the restriction, claiming it had negatively impacted her company.

“My chances of reaching new people and potential customers stopped, but some of my customers contacted me by accessing Instagram through VPN and other social media platforms,” the woman stated. The Instagram access ban is estimated to have cost the Turkish economy $11.5 million per day by internet watchdog NetBlocks. According to the Turkish e-commerce enterprises group ETID, Turkish companies bring in over 900 million lira ($27 million).

According to vice chairman Emre Ekmekci, Turkish e-commerce enterprises organization ETID estimates that Turkish businesses make about 900 million lira ($27 million) in income from Instagram every day. He predicted a slow exodus of consumers and dealers to alternative sites in the event that the ban stood. “We are hoping that the parties can work out a solution and that the meeting will go well. There is a commercial influence in addition to the politics around this subject.