Turkey Restores Access To Instagram After 10 Days, Meta-Owned App Agrees To Govt Demands

Instagram has reportedly agreed to the demands placed by the Turkey government around censorship and crime-related content.

Turkey blocked access to Meta-owned social media platform, Instagram, on August 2.

Source : Unsplash/Cedrik Wesche

Turkey has finally restored access to Instagram after blocking it for around 10 days. The restriction's removal came after Instagram agreed to meet Turkey's demands around censorship and crime-related content. According to a Bloomberg report, the citizens of Turkey had abruptly lost the access to Instagram on August 2 but no official explanation was given by the authorities for making this decision.

Turkey Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu just announced the restriction on X in a post. 

What Happened In Turkey?

Turkey on August 2 blocked access to Meta-owned social media platform Instagram. The National Communications Authority of Turkey restricted access to the service after a senior Turkish official accused the U.S. company of censorship. According to news agency AFP, no additional details were given. Turkey's Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) made a post stating, “Instagram.com has been blocked by a decision on the date of 02/08/2024.”

Numerous users residing in Turkey expressed their frustration on microblogging platform, X, over them not being able to refresh their Instagram feed.

Before this restriction was imposed, Fahrettin Altun, the Turkish presidency’s communications director, criticized Instagram, accusing it of “impeding people from publishing messages of condolence for the martyr Haniyeh”.

Ismail Haniyeh, who served as the political leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and was a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was reportedly killed in Tehran on Wednesday. The attack, which was allegedly carried out by Israel, was covered by AFP.

In a post on X, Altun said, “This is a very clear and obvious attempt at censure.” As per Turkish media, Instagram hosts more than 50 million in Turkey. Notably, the total population of Turkey is around 85 million.