Updated on: August 15, 2024
After only being banned for 9 days, Instagram is now available again to users in Turkey.
If you were a long-term Instagram user, you may have been shocked to find that you couldn’t connect to your Instagram account for over a week.
Turkish officials originally banned Instagram on August 2nd amidst controversies surrounding the Israel-Hamas war. The ban was surprising, given that Turkey is #5 on the list of countries that use Instagram most.
Originally, criticisms were levied at Meta (the parent company of Instagram) after officials found that Instagram was censoring Hamas-related content in favor of Israeli content. At the same time, Meta wasn’t doing enough to ban content that was considered harmful, such as sexual abuse and gambling.
Following this, access to the app was banned for 9 days while officials considered what they should do. Top officials ruled that it was unlawful conduct, and found that it actively went against the sensibilities of Turkish citizens. Turkey’s position on the matter is that Western countries shouldn’t be supporting Israel so fiercely and it’s an affront to human rights.
The ban caused notable damage to small and medium-sized businesses that relied on Instagram to advertise. For the 9 days that Instagram was banned, business owners could only access the site by using a VPN.
The ban has been lifted since Meta has recognised Turkey’s concerns regarding Hamas content and agreed to work with officials if they plan to prohibit content. Meta stated that it was happy to see progress being made with Turkey.
Meta also reports that it shares Turkey’s sensibilities regarding content related to terrorist groups, like the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“Live metrics show Instagram is being restored across Turkey’s main internet providers after national restriction spanning nine days. This is the country’s longest ban of a major social media platform in recent years,” states digital monitoring company NetBlocks.