57 million users breathe a sigh of relief Turkey reaches agreement with Meta and lifts Instagram ban
After more than a week, the online platform Instagram is once again freely accessible in Turkey. "The block on Instagram has been lifted," wrote Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu on the short message service X.
10.08.2024, 23:36
10.08.2024, 23:43
SDA
An agreement had been reached with Instagram's parent company Meta regarding the deletion of criminally relevant content. Meta did not initially comment on the lifting of the block.
Uraloglu had accused the company of allowing content that constitutes a criminal offense in Turkey, such as sexual abuse, advertising for gambling and insults against the country's founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
57 million users
Instagram was finally blocked on Friday last week, and since then the platform has only been accessible from Turkey via protected network connections (VPN). According to media reports, around 57 million people use Instagram in Turkey.
Shortly before the block, communications director Fahrettin Altun accused Instagram of blocking messages of condolence for the killed Hamas foreign leader Ismail Hanija and accused the platform of censorship.
Ankara maintains good relations with the Islamist Hamas. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Hanija in Istanbul as recently as April. Following the killing of Hanija in the Iranian capital Tehran, the Turkish government ordered a one-day period of national mourning.