Turkey has finally restored access to Instagram after a blockage of around 10 days. The lifting of the restriction came after Instagram agreed to comply with Turkey’s demands regarding censorship and crime-related content. According to a Bloomberg report, citizens of Turkey had abruptly lost access to Instagram on August 2, but authorities did not give an official explanation for this decision.
Turkish Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu has just announced the restriction for X in a post.
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What happened in Turkey?
Turkey blocked access to Meta’s own social media platform Instagram on August 2. Turkey’s national communications authority restricted access to the service after a senior Turkish official accused the US company of censorship. No further details were provided, according to AFP news agency. Turkey’s Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK) published a post saying: “Instagram.com has been blocked by decision dated 02.08.2024.”
Numerous users living in Turkey expressed their frustration on the microblogging platform X over not being able to refresh their Instagram feed.
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Before this restriction was imposed, Fahrettin Altun, the Turkish president’s communications director, criticized Instagram, accusing the company of “preventing people from posting condolence messages for the martyr Haniyeh.”
Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas and a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was reportedly killed in Tehran on Wednesday, according to AFP reports. The attack was allegedly carried out by Israel.
In a post on X, Altun said: “This is a very clear and obvious attempt to reprimand this.” According to Turkish media, there are over 50 million people on Instagram in Turkey. The total population of Turkey is around 85 million.
