Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s government has lifted its nine-day ban on Meta Platforms, Inc.’s META Instagram, following the Mark Zuckerberg-led social media platform’s agreement to comply with Turkey’s demands.
What Happened: On Saturday, Turkey’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu took to X, formerly Twitter, and announced the latest development.
He said Turkey blocked access to Instagram because of the platform’s failure to “respond to our requests due to the policies it implemented within the scope of catalog crimes.”
“From the beginning, we wanted social media platforms to respect the laws of the Republic of Turkey,” he stated adding that now Instagram has agreed to meet Turkey’s demands.
Meta did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment.
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Why It Matters: The ban was a result of Instagram’s alleged non-compliance with Turkish laws and public sensitivities, particularly concerning posts about Ismail Haniyeh, the assassinated leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Instagram reportedly suppressed condolence messages related to the assassination of Haniyeh. Fahrettin Altun, a Turkish communications official, lambasted Instagram for what he described as censorship last week. “I also strongly condemn the social media platform Instagram which is actively preventing people from posting messages of condolences for the passing of Hamas leader Haniyeh without citing any policy violations,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter, adding, “This is censorship, pure and simple.”
This wasn’t the first time Meta faced regulatory challenges in Turkey. In April earlier this year, Meta suspended its Threads service in the country in response to an interim order from the Turkish Competition Authority.
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