Turkey lifts ban after Instagram agrees to demands

a_uraloglu/X

Turkey has lifted its more than week-long ban on Instagram after the social media company agreed to collaborate with the government to address its concerns.

The ban was removed on Saturday night after Instagram promised to work on demands regarding “catalogue crimes” and censorship on users, transport and infrastructure minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said in a post on messaging platform X.

“From the beginning, we wanted social media platforms to respect the laws of the Republic of Türkiye,” he said in his post.

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The minister said that Meta Platforms, the parent company of Instagram, will take all necessary precautions to remove accounts belonging to terrorist organisations, Daily Sabah newspaper reported.

The user rights of social media accounts belonging to Turkish citizens will be protected and no accounts will be closed without warning, the report said quoting Uraloğlu.

According to the trade ministry, at least $57 million worth of e-commerce is conducted each day and a large percentage is carried out through social media.

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Dr Buğra Gökçe, head of the Istanbul Planning Agency, told AGBI that companies in the tourism and entertainment sectors, along with small and medium-sized businesses and freelance service providers, use Instagram to advertise their activities.

Turkish regulators have cracked down on social media platforms previously. Last July, the  Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) banned advertising on X after the company failed to comply with the legal requirement to establish an office in Turkey.