Instagram freely accessible again in Turkey
After a good week, Instagram is freely accessible again in Turkey. An agreement has been reached with the parent company Meta on the deletion of criminally relevant content.
After around a week, the online platform Instagram is freely accessible again in Turkey. "The ban on Instagram has been lifted," wrote Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu on X. An agreement has been reached with the parent company Meta on the deletion of criminally relevant content. Meta initially did not comment on the lifting of the blockade. According to media reports, around 57 million people in Turkey use Instagram.
Instagram was blocked by the Information and Communication Technology Authority (BTK) a week ago, Friday. Since then, the platform has only been accessible in Turkey via protected network connections (VPN). The reason given for the censorship, was that the company was allowing content that constitutes a criminal offense in Turkey. Specifically, this involved so-called catalog penalties such as insults against the founder of the state, Atatürk, incitement to gambling and drugs, and sexual abuse.
Numerous organizations and associations criticized the restriction of fundamental rights and called for the immediate lifting of the Instagram ban. The civil society organization MLSA (Media and Law Studies Association) filed a complaint with the administrative court in Ankara. MLSA also accused the Erdoğan government of ignoring decisions of the Constitutional Court.
In January, Turkey's highest judicial authority repealed a presidential decree that empowered the BTK to interfere with freedom of expression and freedom of the press and to impose access restrictions for certain crimes. Fundamental rights and freedoms cannot be regulated by presidential decree, the decision said. Immediately after the Instagram ban, the Constitutional Court's website was also temporarily unavailable in Turkey.
Head of state Recep Tayyip Erdoğan indirectly defended the Instagram ban and accused online networks of practicing "digital fascism." They behave like the mafia when it comes to their interests, said Erdoğan. The constitutional ruling regulating the powers of the BTK is no longer available on the court's website.
