Turkey restores access to Instagram following a nine-day restriction

Instagram is unblocked in Turkey as of Saturday, once the online photo sharing site reached an agreement with the government on how to address concerns about its content. The restriction came into force on the night of August 2, with Ankara citing a failure to comply with "laws and regulations" of the country, as well as public interests. On the night the block was announced, a senior Turkish government official accused the photo-sharing service Instagram of blocking posts mourning the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.

Turkey opposed Israeli attacks on Gaza, called for an end to hostilities, and criticized unconditional Western support of Israel. The prohibition faced protests from the users and from SMEs who were covered to customers through the platform. These were led by the United States, Brazil, Indonesia, and India, at first, second, third, and fourth places, respectively, and in fifth place according to information from the Turkish authorities where more than 57 million registered users using the application in Turkey. "We will lift the access block following our talks with the representatives of Instagram in which they assured us they will cooperate to meet our requirements regarding the crimes under the directory and the pornographic images shared with the directory," again according to an article published by X given that: Neuroscience writer.

A number of the offences the Turkish legislation contains: murder, sexual violence, drug trafficking, violence, and torture. "Improvement in the safety of the digital environment of the users in Turkey was provided, and also national legislation was followed, the users' rights were protected, and mechanisms to develop a healthy process of verification were established whereby there is abundant progress," Uragul said.

Meta, the parent company of Instagram, said it would follow Turkish law to ensure the "effective removal" of content or posts containing elements of certain crimes or "terrorist propaganda." Instagram did not immediately respond to the Reuters request for comment. "After a nine-day national blackout for Instagram, our performance data shows recovery under way at main internet providers in Turkey." NetBlocks, which monitors the internet, said it was the longest ban ever imposed on the main social networks in recent years in the country.