Türkiye on Tuesday said there was “significant progress” in talks with Instagram officials and that it would restore access as soon as the social media platform addressed the country’s concerns and took the necessary steps.
Authorities banned Instagram on Friday and accused the platform owned by Facebook parent Meta of both censorship and failing to remove offensive posts.
A senior Turkish official separately accused the platform of blocking condolence posts following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu on Tuesday said Türkiye’s concerns were conveyed to Instagram officials during two meetings since Friday, the last one of which took place on Monday.
“Significant progress has been made; the ban will be lifted once the necessary steps are taken,” Uraloğlu told reporters in Ankara.
Officials said Instagram had been suspended for ignoring demands to remove “criminal content.” Some reports said this included “insults to Atatürk,” the founding father of modern Türkiye, “drug games (and) pedophilia.”
Previously, Türkiye made several notifications to the company concerning material on the platform on crimes such as gambling or sexual offenses, but Instagram’s response fell short, said Uraloğlu. Türkiye has laws and rules, and companies active in the country must comply with them, he stressed.
Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun on Wednesday criticized Instagram for “censorship, pure and simple,” over its decision to bar condolence posts for Haniyeh after his assassination by Israel in Iran’s capital Tehran on July 31.
Türkiye has denounced Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza, called for an immediate cease-fire, and criticized the unconditional support for Israel by the West.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday fiercely criticized social media companies and accused them of “fascism” and censorship, saying they sought to “muzzle the Palestinian people’s voices.”
Uraloğlu echoed Altun’s view, saying: “This is censorship and blocking.”
“I think they will take our sensitivities into consideration before too long, we will open access immediately if our demands are met,” he said.
Türkiye ranks fifth in the world in terms of Instagram usage, with more than 57 million users, following India, the U.S., Brazil and Indonesia, according to data platform Statista.
Meta apologizes to Malaysia
Uraloğlu also referred to the fact that Meta Platforms apologized on Tuesday for “erroneously” removing Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s social media posts in which he expressed condolences over Haniyeh’s death.
Meta was sorry for “an operational error,” adding that the content had been restored with “the correct newsworthy label,” a spokesperson told Reuters.
The apology came a day after Anwar’s office summoned Meta representatives to seek an explanation on why the leader’s Facebook and Instagram posts about Haniyeh’s death had been removed.
Anwar posted on Facebook and Instagram on July 31 a video recording of his phone call with a Hamas official to offer condolences over Haniyeh’s death. He also posted a picture from his last meeting with Haniyeh in Qatar in May, along with a condolence message.
Anwar accused the tech giant of “cowardice” last week for removing his posts.
Malaysian authorities have previously chided Meta for removing posts as well as for not taking down harmful content fast enough.
“But they removed many of our posts, they block accounts without any warning, but there’s no apology,” said Uraloğlu.
Türkiye will protect its own values and laws, but the country does not and never has taken a prohibitionist approach, he stressed.
On Monday, Erdoğan highlighted that social media networks “respect the rules in America and Europe but deliberately ignore them when it comes to fighting unlawful content in Türkiye.”
“As a government, we have no problem with anyone’s freedom, freedom of expression, job, livelihood, trade or lifestyle,” said the president. “If Türkiye’s legitimate demands are met and its sensitivities are respected, the issue will naturally be resolved on its own.”
He accused them of resorting to “every means to hide Israel’s cruelty and muzzle the Palestinian people’s voices” and said social media companies “have literally become militants.”
“We are facing a digital fascism that has no tolerance for even the photographs of Palestinian martyrs and bans them immediately.”
Last year, Human Rights Watch said, “Meta’s policies and practices were silencing voices in support of Palestine and Palestinian human rights on Instagram and Facebook.”
