Anika Begay
Turkey appears to have restored access to Instagram, owned by Meta, after blocking the app on August 2.
Abdulkadir Uraloglu, the country’s Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, published today that the ban would be lifted at 9:30 pm Turkish time.
NetBlocks Cyber Security Monitoring says“Real-time metrics show Instagram gradually being restored to ISPs in #Turkey after authorities and Meta negotiated the removal of terrorist content and the restoration of unjustly terminated accounts.”
The ban came after a Turkish official accused Instagram of censoring condolence posts related to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Uraloglu wrote today that the Turkish government blocked Instagram because the company “did not respond to our requests due to the policies implemented in the area of catalog crimes” (translated via Google). He added that following discussions with Instagram, “our requests, especially regarding catalog crimes, will be met and they promised to work together on the censorship imposed on users.”
Uraloglu’s post did not specify what crimes or content censorship were discussed. Instagram did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
