Turkish ministry meets with Instagram officials over ban

ANKARA

Administrators from the Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Ministry on Monday convened with Instagram officials over the ongoing four-day access blockage on the social media platform in the country.

"We hope they will fulfill our requests and anticipate favorable developments," Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu wrote on X before the meeting commenced at 1 p.m. with officials from the Meta-owned platform.

While the meeting was underway, Meta representatives spoke to BBC Turkish, asserting they would exert utmost efforts to have the ban lifted.

"With millions in Türkiye deprived of a vital conduit for quotidian communication with their families and friends due to the Instagram access restriction, businesses are equally unable to reach their clientele. We will persist in our endeavors to reinstate our services," Meta declared.

Türkiye blocked Instagram on Aug. 2 because it did not comply with the country's "catalog of crimes,” according to the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK).

These include offenses such as child sexual abuse, encouragement of suicide and insulting modern Türkiye founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. No information was immediately provided regarding the duration of the ban.

Media reports said access was blocked in response to Instagram removing posts by Turkish users that expressed condolences over the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

It came days after Fahrettin Altun, the presidential communications director, criticized the Meta-owned platform for preventing users in Türkiye from posting messages of condolences for Haniyeh.

"This is a very clear and obvious attempt at censure," Altun said on X.

Sources speaking to daily Hürriyet disclosed that Turkish officials had provided Instagram with a list of content they demanded to be removed, stating that access would be restored once these conditions were met.

"As long as the content in the list isn't removed, the restriction will persist," noted an official, emphasizing that while Instagram usually responds to such sensitivities within two hours in Europe, it has failed to comply with the BTK's request for the past three days.

The official added, "If they adhere to the concerns on the list, the platform can be unblocked within half an hour."
According to the media, there are more than 50 million users signed up to Instagram in Türkiye, out of a population of 85 million.