Minister says Instagram has failed to meet Turkish government demands as price of lifting ban imposed on August 2 but ‘active discussions’ continue.
Turkey’s Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Abdulkadir Uraloglu, said Instagram had not met conditions to lift the access block imposed on August 2. “We did not get exactly the result we wanted, we are following up and actively discussing.” Uraloglu said on Monday.
Media outlet Haber Global said Turkey had put a list of demands to Instagram in a meeting.
“The delegation headed by Uraloglu emphasised that messages of support for the [Kurdish militant groups] PKK, PYD and FETÖ [Ankara’s name for exiled Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen’s network], which are on Turkey’s list of terrorist organisations, should also be blocked by algorithms,” it wrote.
Reportedly, the Turkish side also “criticised the algorithms blocking messages of condolence published by Turkish officials for Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh”, following his recent assassination in Iran, which has been linked to Israel.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meanwhile accused Instagram and other social media platforms of “digital fascism” for allegedly blocking criticism of Israel. “They consider even a simple sentence criticising Israel as an insult. We are facing digital fascism,” Erdogan said on Monday.
Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority, BTK, the national communications regulatory agency, blocked access to Instagram on August 2 without stating the reason or duration of the ban.
The ban came after the presidency’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, accused Instagram, which is owned by META, of censorship of content about Haniyeh’s assassination, calling him a “martyr”. “This is censorship, pure and simple,” Altun said on X, adding that Instagram had not cited any policy violations for its action.
Turkey later announced that Instagram had been blocked over its failure to remove illegal content on matters such as “the sexual abuse of a child”, for insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, and over items on “gambling and drugs”. Officials said Instagram had been warned to remove such content but it failed.
Turkey has passed draconian laws and regulations that give the government greater control on digital platforms.
Under Erdogan, it has previously blocked many social media platforms, including YouTube, Threads, EksiSozluk, Wikipedia, Twitter and TikTok. It has also imposed social media and broadcasting bans following disasters, terror attacks and social unrest.
Users in Turkey cannot currently access Instagram via web and mobile applications but access is still possible via VPN services.
“Millions of people are being deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends, and business are no longer able to reach their customers,” a META spokesperson said on Monday adding that META is doing everything to restore Instagram in Turkey.
According to the Istanbul Planning Agency, IPA, the municipal statistical agency, Turkey’s recent decision to block Instagram could lead to daily economic losses of about 1.9 billion Turkish liras or some 52.1 million euro.