Türkiye restores access to Instagram

Türkiye has apparently restored access to Meta-owned Instagram after blocking the app on August 2.

Abdulkadir Uraloglu, the country’s minister of transport and infrastructure, published today it was announced that the ban will be lifted at 21:30 Turkish time.

NetBlocks Cybersecurity Monitor says“Current data shows that Instagram is gradually being restored by internet providers in #Turkey after authorities and Meta negotiated the removal of terrorist content and the restoration of wrongly closed accounts.”

The ban comes after a Turkish official accused Instagram of censoring condolence posts related to the killing of Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh.

Uraloglu wrote today that the Turkish government blocked Instagram because the company “did not respond to our requests due to the policy it has implemented regarding catalog crimes” (translated via Google). He added that after talks with Instagram, “our demands, especially regarding catalog crimes, will be met, and they promised to cooperate on the censorship imposed on users.”

Uraloglu’s post did not specify what crimes or content censorship were discussed. Instagram did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.