Turkey
Turkey Returns Citizens Access To Instagram After Nine Days Outage
Turkish authorities have confirmed unblocking Instagram in the country nine days after blocking the social media app.
This was confirmed on X by Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu, who said: “Following our negotiations with representatives of Instagram, we will unblock access starting from 9:30 pm (1830 GMT) after they agree to respond to our demands.”
The minister noted “content-related violations,” adding that Instagram refused to erase hundreds of posts involving “gambling, drugs, and child abuse.”
Instagram’s owner, Meta denied, claiming that the company removed around 2,500 posts at the request of Turkish authorities in the first half of the year.
Fahrettin Altun, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s communications director, accused Instagram of censoring condolence messages for Ismael Haniyeh, the political head of the Palestinian party Hamas and a close ally of Erdogan.
Turkey has condemned Israel’s attacks on Gaza, demanding an immediate cease-fire, and questioned the West’s backing for Israel.
Indeed, users and small businesses who use the site to reach their clients have protested the nine-day restriction.
Statistics site Statista indicated that Turkey ranks fifth in the world for Instagram usage, with over 57 million users, trailing only India, the United States, Brazil, and Indonesia.
Instagram parent company Meta had committed to cooperate with Turkish legislation to ensure that posts and content containing elements of specific crimes or “terrorism propaganda” were removed efficiently.
The minister had insisted, “Since the beginning, we have wanted social media platforms to respect the laws of the Republic.”
Earlier report had stated that the Turkish Competition Authority had fined tech giant, Google, around 482 million lira (US$14.85 million) for not meeting its hotel search-related requirements.
