ISTANBUL – Turkish authorities announced on Saturday evening the unblocking of Instagram platform to which they banned access to tens of millions of subscribers for nine days.
“Following our negotiations with those responsible on Instagram, we will unlock access from 9:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. GMT) as they have committed to responding to our demands”, announced on X the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure in charge of the file, Abdulkadir Uraloglu.
“From the beginning, we wanted social media platforms to respect the Republic’s laws,” insisted Mr. Uraloglu.
The platform has remained blocked since the morning of August 2 for obscure reasons, between accusations of “censorship” and illicit content.
The minister spoke on Saturday evening of “offenses linked to content” on Instagram.
In turn, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced on Monday “a digital fascism that cannot tolerate photos of Palestinian martyrs without banning them immediately.”
More than fifty million people are on Instagram in Türkiye (out of 85 million inhabitants) many of whom trade with an amount of 57 million dollars daily, according to the vice-president of the Association of E-Commerce operators, Emre Ekmekçi.
