Turkey appears to have restored access to Meta-owned Instagram, after blocking the app on August 2.
Abdulkadir Uraloglu, the country’s minister of transport and infrastructure, posted today that the ban would be lifted at 9:30 p.m. Turkish time.
Cybersecurity monitor NetBlocks says, “Live metrics show that Instagram is being gradually restored on internet providers in #Turkey after authorities and Meta negotiate the removal of terrorist content and the reinstatement of unfairly closed accounts.”
The ban came after a Turkish official had 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 it implemented within the scope of catalog crimes” (translation via Google). He added that following discussions with Instagram, “our demands, especially regarding catalog crimes, will be met and they have promised to work together on the censorship imposed on users.”
Uraloglu’s post does not specify which crimes or content censorship were discussed. Instagram did not immediately respond to LogInn’s request for comment.
